UCSF-John Muir Health Cancer Center in Berkeley

UCSF-John Muir Health Cancer Center in Berkeley, part of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, offers East Bay residents a full range of care. As a patient, you can expect world-class treatment rooted in cutting-edge research and tailored to your condition and needs. You'll also find a range of support services and educational resources to help you and your loved ones manage your care and participate actively in the healing process.

Our team's surgical and medical oncologists have experience with most cancers, including those of the breast, digestive tract, head and neck, lung, thyroid and prostate, as well as gynecologic cancers, multiple myeloma and sarcomas.

Services include:

• Personalized care for cancers in any stage, including advanced stages
• Chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy, lab and imaging services
• Monitoring for recurrence and survivorship care (for patients who have completed treatment)
• Genetic testing and counseling, including personalized recommendations on screening and preventive measures

For patients with breast cancer or breast symptoms, such as pain or a new lump, breast surgeons provide evaluation and diagnosis with the latest minimally invasive techniques, including ultrasound-guided and fine needle aspiration biopsies. We also offer annual screening mammograms and diagnostic mammograms (those ordered to investigate something that has raised concern). Both new and existing patients may book screening mammograms online.

Our state-of-the-art imaging technology, including the Biograph Vision 450 PET-CT scanner, can detect very small changes in the body. With superior image quality, we can obtain more accurate images, provide more precise diagnoses and offer more personalized care. We can also collect images more quickly, which shortens the exam time and lowers the radiation dose.

With the addition of radiation therapy to our on-site services, East Bay patients now have access to one of the nation's best radiation oncology programs. We specialize in external beam radiation therapy (EBRT), which delivers high-dose X-rays precisely to a target, shrinking or eliminating tumor cells with minimal damage to surrounding healthy tissues. The most widely used type of radiation therapy, EBRT is typically delivered by a machine called a linear accelerator (LINAC). Treatments are generally administered once a day, five days a week, over several weeks. Depending on the patient, the goal may be to destroy the cancer, to keep it from spreading, or to improve quality of life by relieving pain and other symptoms.

Other advanced treatment techniques that we offer include hepatic artery infusion (HAI), which may be used as a treatment for patients with colon or rectal cancer that has spread to the liver and for patients with bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma) that can't be removed or has spread into the liver. HAI delivers concentrated chemotherapy drugs through the hepatic artery, the main artery that supplies liver tumors with blood. This treatment can shrink liver tumors before surgery or kill cancer cells after surgery; it also may be used when tumors are too numerous or extensive to be removed surgically.

Cancer care is one of many specialties available at the Berkeley Outpatient Center, a collaboration between UCSF Health and John Muir Health. Our partnership gives you one-stop access to a wide range of medical services from two leading health systems.

Public transportation options include Ashby BART and various bus lines. If you come by car, you'll find us just off the Eastshore Freeway. Parking in the building is free.