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Congratulations to Dr. Jami Fukui, the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center’s Chief of Clinical Breast Oncology for Ka ʻUmeke Lama, who has been named a 2025 Hawaii Healthcare Hero by the Healthcare Association of Hawaii. She was nominated by Lynn Enright, a patient Dr. Fukui treated at Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women & Children. During an emotional ceremony on August 19 at Kapi‘olani, Enright credited Dr. Fukui’s expertise and caring as key to Enright's surviving her cancer journey. UH Cancer Center Chief Scientific Officer Dr. John Shepherd joined leaders from Kapi‘olani, the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, and University Health Partners in remarks praising Dr. Fukui’s excellence, and commitment to her patients and to cancer research. Dr. Fukui will be recognized also at a gala event in October, in media appearances, and at a ceremony at the 2026 Hawai‘i State Legislature.

Save the date and please join us for “Diet & Nutrition for the Cancer Journey,” an ‘Ohana Pink event on Oct. 4, presented by the Susan C. Hirano Cancer CARE Community. From 8-11 a.m. at the Sullivan Conference Center, learn how diet and nutrition play a vital role in supporting all cancer patients. Learn from nationally recognized researchers at the UH Cancer Center and community partners who are at the forefront of innovative studies aimed at improving patient care and outcomes. Check out educational resources and a cooking demonstration, and connect with others in the cancer community. Let’s eat healthfully! The public is invited, and admission is free. Sign up on Eventbrite by clicking here.

Nearly 140 guests eager to learn about our University of Hawai‘i Cancer Center gathered Wednesday evening at our Sullivan Conference Center for a “Toast to Hope” center tour — our largest “Toast” event so far. The Friends of the UH Cancer Center hosted the event, during which guests enjoyed refreshments as they heard from some of our leaders about our research, clinical trials, patient care and community outreach. Guests also were told of expansion plans to open our Ho‘ōla Early Phase Clinical Research Center in 2026, grow our Hawai‘i Cancer Consortium to include neighbor island partners, and develop homegrown oncologists through the Ka ‘Umeke Lama initiative; and they heard a moving personal testimonial from Hawaii News Now anchor Billy V, a cancer survivor, and a Hope Ambassador for our center. Mahalo to the Friends of the UH Cancer Center, faculty, staff and volunteers who made this exciting event possible!

About 168 golfers hit the links on August 29 during the 11th Annual Cooling Cancer Golf Tournament at the Hoakalei Country Club in Kapolei, to raise awareness and funds for the UH Cancer Center. And more than 30 volunteers and staff from the UH Cancer Center in bright turquoise logo shirts, along with our Skin✔ Van, lent staffing, outreach and presence to the event. Drew Santos, a longtime supporter of our center, organized and sponsored the event, and said this year's was “landmark” because of "the total involvement of the UH Cancer Center employees and volunteers. This allowed us to staff all of our sponsor tents and front of the house with incredible people who are actually involved with the UH Cancer Center and cancer research. While this year’s fundraising total is not yet finalized, $650,000 has been raised over past years. Mahalo to everyone who came out to compete and volunteer at this year’s Cooling Cancer Golf Tournament!

We say “Aloha!” to Wendy Richards, UH Cancer Center Director of Information Technology — and “Mahalo!” after 28 years of dedicated service. Wendy has worked to keep our center at the cutting edge of technology — from leading the installation of IT-based phones in 2000, to the refitting of our conference rooms with the latest communication and conferencing equipment this summer. Even as the technical needs of the center have changed over the years, and the IT department has grown, Wendy has kept the same core team for over 25 years, ensuring that quality and continuity of service will be maintained. Mahalo, Wendy, for all you have done, and happy retirement!

The family of the late UH Cancer Center Hope Ambassador Susan Hirano gathered for a tour on August 4 to learn more about the work of our UH Cancer Center. The group is pictured with Dr. Toshiaki Iwase, Medical Director of our Clinical Trials Office, fourth from right. Susan founded our new patient-support and -empowerment program, now called the Susan C. Hirano Cancer CARE Community. She passed away in April 2025, just days after the program’s launch and a surprise ceremony in which the program was renamed in her honor. An endowment totalling nearly $250,000 has been launched with gifts from the Hirano Family, Tsuha Hawaiʻi Aloha, Servco Foundation and others, to provide perpetual funding for the program. Mahalo to the Hirano family for your constant support!

‘Both Sides Now: New Drug Discovery Perspectives from Academia and Industry’
Mark H. Kirschbaum, MD
CMO and Founder, Midtown Biopharma
Friday, September 5 | 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Sullivan Conference Center

‘Diet & Nutrition for the Cancer Journey,’ an ‘Ohana Pink event presented by the Susan C. Hirano Cancer CARE Community
Saturday, October 4 | 8-11 a.m.
Sullivan Conference Center

JOB BOARD

Professor - Ho‘ōla Early Phase Clinical Research Center Director

For all University of Hawaiʻi Internal Civil Service Recruitments, please see the bulletin by the Human Resources Office for the most current vacancies.

Iron and selenium: At the crossroads of development and death in oligodendrocytes. Ma C, Wurlitzer K, Nunes LGA, Hoffmann PR, Pitts MW. Arch Biochem Biophys. 2025 Sep;771:110509.

Randomized phase II comparison of single-agent carboplatin versus combination of carboplatin and everolimus for advanced triple negative breast cancer. Patel R, Fukui J, Klein P, Moshier E, Kocyigit H, Fiedler L, Bucwinska W, Xing XY, Shapiro C, Goel A, Fasano J, Shao T, Bhardwaj A, Kim E, Vaccaro R, Lee K, Wilck E, Tiersten A. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2025 Aug 16.

The effects of the potent antioxidant 3,5-dihydroxy-4-methoxybenzyl alcohol on mutagenicity in microorganisms and chromosomal aberrations in cultured mammalian cells in vitro. Watanabe M, Yoshiike K, Watanabe H, Yamaguchi M. Food Chem Toxicol. 2025 Oct;204:115619. 

The persuasiveness of vaccine focused social media posts to parents of adolescents. Imburgia TM, Fontenot HB, Glauberman GHR, Liebermann E, Kornides ML, Lim E, Matsunaga M, Zimet GD. Prev Med Rep. 2025 Aug 5;57:103194. 

Role of immunosuppressive JNK pathway in the tumor microenvironment among TNBC subtypes in IBCSG trial 22-00. Joaquin Garcia A, Semba T, Rediti M, McGrail DJ, Xie X, Wang X, Rampa DR, Venet D, Buisseret L, Majjaj S, Kammler R, Colleoni M, Loi S, Viale G, Regan MM, Rothé F, Sotiriou C, Ueno NT. iScience. 2025 Jun 20;28(8):112964. 

Translon: a single term for translated regions. Świrski MI, Tierney JAS, Albà MM, Andreev DE, Aspden JL, Atkins JF, Bassani-Sternberg M, Berry MJ... Seale LA, ... Baranov PV. Nat Methods. 2025 Sep 1. 

Quantifying device type and handedness biases in a remote Parkinson's disease AI-powered assessment. Tumpa ZN, Zawad MRS, Sollis L, Parab S, Chen IY, Washington P. NPJ Digit Med. 2025 Aug 27;8(1):550. 

Artificial Intelligence, Ghost Writers, and Scientific Integrity.  Carbone M, Adjei AA.
J Thorac Oncol. 2025 Aug 28:S1556-0864(25)00985-2. 

The Beta Amyloid Core Hexapeptide Protects Against Full-Length Beta Amyloid-Induced Alteration of Dendritic Spine Morphology and Density. Shontell RM, Araki D, Ormsbee KM, Delgado DD, Nichols RA. eNeuro. 2025 Aug 25:ENEURO.0044-25.2025. 

Liquid biopsy diagnostics for non-small cell lung cancer via elucidation of tRNA signatures. Feng Z, Nasu M, Devendra G, Abdul-Ghani AA, Chan OTM, Borgia JA, Gao Z, Zhang H, Chen Y, Gong T, Luo G, Yang H, Wu L, Fu Y, Deng Y. Commun Med (Lond). 2025 Aug 21;5(1):364. 

Tumor cell-adipocyte gap junctions activate lipolysis and contribute to breast tumorigenesis. Williams J, Camarda R, Malkov S, Zimmerman LJ, Manning S, Aran D, Beardsley A, Van de Mark D, Nakagawa R, Chen Y, Berdan C, Louie SM, Mahieu C, Superville D, Winkler J, Willey E, Hutchins EJ, Gagnon JD, Avsaroglu SK, Shinoda K, Gruner M, Nishida H, Ansel KM, Werb Z, Nomura DK, Kajimura S, Butte AJ, Sanders ME, Liebler DC, Rugo HS, Krings G, Shepherd JA, Goga A. Nat Commun. 2025 Aug 20;16(1):7438.

Hematuria Cancer Risk Score in combination with Oncuria-Detect for patients undergoing evaluation for hematuria. Heard JR, Pagano I, Rosser C, Tan WS. Urology. 2025 Aug 20:S0090-4295(25)00797-6. 

Diet Quality of Marshallese Mothers of Young Children in Northwest Arkansas: An Exploratory Study. Short E, Ammerman A, Novotny R, Cline C, Council SK, Ayers BL. Public Health Nutr. 2025 Aug 22:1-23. 

The persuasiveness of vaccine focused social media posts to parents of adolescents. Imburgia TM, Fontenot HB, Glauberman GHR, Liebermann E, Kornides ML, Lim E, Matsunaga M, Zimet GD. Prev Med Rep. 2025 Aug 5;57:103194. 

Adherence to World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research Guidelines and Mortality among Participants with Colorectal Cancer in the MEC. Asiimwe E, Tolstykh I, Chan JM, Kenfield SA, Wilkens LR, Park SY, Le Marchand L, Huang BZ, Haiman CA, Cheng I, Van Blarigan EL.Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2025 Sep 2;34(9):1558-1565. 

Leveraging existing cohort studies of Mexican women to better understand Hispanic health and cancer risk. Stern D, Gomez-Flores-Ramos L, Trabert B, Setiawan VW, Le Marchand L, Gomez H, Scheet PA, Parada H Jr, Pirzada A, Lajous M, Farland LV. Cancer Causes Control. 2025 Sep;36(9):887-893. 

Associations between Calcium Intake and T-cell Infiltration in Colorectal Tumors. Wesselink E, Thomas CE, Takashima Y, Mizuno H, Buchanan DD, Qu C, Hsu L, Dias Costa A, Ugai S, Zhong Y, Huyghe JR, Thomas S, Gallinger S, Grant RC, Le Marchand L, Masugi Y, van Duijnhoven FJB, Ugai T, Ogino S, Nowak JA, Peters U, Phipps AI. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2025 Sep 2;18(9):561-571. 

Associations Between Pre- and Post-Diagnosis Dietary Inflammatory Patterns and Ovarian Cancer Survival: Results From the Ovarian Cancer Follow-Up Study. Liu JX, Bao RH, Luan M, Liu C, Wu L, Liu FH, Li YZ, Xu HL, Wei YF, Xiao Q, Huang DH, Li XY, Bao Q, Wang JY, Chen YH, Liu JM, Gao S, Wang XY, Zhang DY, Gong TT, Wu QJ. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2025 Sep;125(9):1256-1274.e13.

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