Translating Innovative Science into Compassionate, Patient-Centric Care

Saint John’s Cancer Institute is renowned for advancing therapeutics, translational science, and establishing standards of care. We foster robust fellowship programs, implement and initiate clinical trials, and collaborate with academic and industry partners worldwide.

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Innovation Starts Here

Saint John’s Cancer Institute (SJCI) is a pioneer in drug discovery, therapeutics, clinical trials, and research. SJCI established the Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy under the late Dr. Donald L. Morton, which has become the standard of lymph node care for melanoma and breast cancer worldwide.

Today, our patients continue to have access to innovative treatments, therapeutics, and trials. We are at the forefront of understanding the biology of cancer as well as expanding treatment for under-served communities.

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Research Provides Objective Understanding

2023 Research Publications: Collaboration continues to be the driver of critical findings

“This report shows the collaborative aspects of translational oncology research with cancer centers around the world, demonstrating our continual devotion to improving patient care and finding innovative approaches to curing cancer.”

– Dr. Dave S.B. Hoon, Director of SJCI Translational Research

Learn more and download the Saint John’s Cancer Institute Research Spotlight, 2023.

Blog, PDF: 2023 Research Publications: The Field of Oncology Moves Through Collaboration

SJCI Research Spotlight Report 2023

Saint John’s: A Legacy of Care Excellence

Major Healthcare Awards for 2023 and 2024

“All of these achievements reflect the outstanding care our caregivers and physicians provide to our patients each and every day, …providing leading-edge, award-winning care in a compassionate, community hospital setting.”

– Michael Ricks, CEO, Saint John’s Health Cancer and Institute

Healthgrades – America’s 250 Best Hospitals for Clinical Excellence, including
America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Orthopedic Surgery and Joint Replacement, and Five-star ratings in six specialties: Total Knee Replacement, Total Hip replacement, Hip Fracture, Pneumonia, Bowel Obstruction and Sepsis, U.S. News & World Report – Best Hospital for Maternity Care 2024, Top Six Hospitals in Los Angeles County and Orange County, Recognized among the top 15 “Best Hospitals” in California, and Newsweek – World’s Best Hospitals 2024

About Us, Awards: Saint John’s Health Center Awards

Saint John's Health Center, 2023-2024 Awards

Cancer Prevention

Dr. Anton Bilchik, Chief of General Surgery at Saint John’s Health Center, and Director of Gastrointestinal Research Program at Saint John’s Cancer Institute, reveals the connection between behavior, lifestyle, and the microbiome.

“Physical activity is enormously important. It is considered anti-inflammatory. Inflammation is an important part of cancer development.”

– Anton Bilchik, MD, Ph.D, FACS

Learn more about cancer prevention and the research that is helping to prevent it.

Blog, Videos: What is Cancer Prevention, according to Chief of General Surgery, Dr. Anton Bilchik?

Cancer Prevention - Dr. Anton Bilchik

Saint John’s Continues to Innovate, Changing Lives

Transformed, Stacy Lilien shares her experience treated by Deven Khosla, MD and Daniel Nagasawa, MD, neurosurgeons, as the first patient at Saint John’s to receive robot-assisted, spinal correction surgery.

“I chose Dr. Khosla out of all the doctors that I looked at because he promised me the best outcome. He knew that I could get better. I could go back to my normal activities…I could do whatever I wanted and I’m so glad that I did because I’ve had amazing results.”

– Stacy Lilien

Learn more about Stacy Lilien and the impact the doctors at Saint John’s are making.

Blog, Video: (7:50): 7 Weeks Later, Spinal Surgery Patient is back to Jumping her Mustang

ExcelsiusGPS for spinal correction is available at Saint John's

Dr. Hyo Park Brings Comfort to a Stage 3 Uterine Cancer Survivor

Relieved, Yvonne Kalman Reflects On Her Care, and as a Patient of Dr. Sean Fischer.

“Not all doctors are the same, but these are two outstanding doctors and I’m very grateful that they’re under the same roof at Saint John’s, and I’m very grateful that I’m a patient here.”

– Yvonne Kalman

Learn more about Dr. Park’s approach and how Yvonne felt about her surgery.

Blog, Video: (8:40): Treatment for Stage 3 Uterine Cancer at Saint John’s Health Center

Dr Park and her patient Yvonne - Saint John's Cancer Institute

Multi-cancer Early Detection (MCED) Testing

Providence is offering Multi-cancer Early Detection (MCED) testing to empower providers and the public with a blood test that can detect a shared cancer signal across 50+ types of cancer through a simple blood draw.

“Providence is committed to collaborations that provide individuals with the best evidence-based care including advancements like early cancer screenings that can improve patient outcomes.”

– Ora K. Gordon, MD, Regional Medical Director of Providence’s Clinical Genetics & Genomics Program

Providers are encouraged to request a test kit for eligible patients. See list of detectable cancers.

News: Providence Offers Multi-cancer Early Detection (MCED) Testing

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Open or Actively Recruiting Clinical Trials

Brain Cancer and Solid Tumors Clinical Trials

Principal Invenstigator: Dr. Akanksha Sharma: Learn more.

Breast Cancer: Precision Medicine

Principal Invenstigator: Dr. Parvin Peddi: Learn more.

Melanoma Cancer: Drug Trials:

Principal Investgator: Dr. Kim Margolin: Learn more.

Prostate Cancer: White Button Mushroom

Principal Invenstigator: Dr. Przemyslaw Twardowski: Learn more.

Current Trials

Search using key terms or filter by Centers of Excellence or by Lead Doctor. Learn more.

Saint John's Cancer Institute - Featured Clinical Trials

Breakthroughs in Cancer Research

Saint John’s Researchers Gather to Reveal the Future of Cancer: Doctors, Anton Bilchik, Jennifer Linehan, Ora Gordon, and Nicholas Schork, Ph.D., Adjunct Faculty at Saint John’s and Distinguished Professor of Quantitative Medicine at The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), share critial insights

“We can set a precedent for the rest of the world on how clinical studies should be used to benefit patients in real-time and not 10 years after all the data has been aggregated in some way.”

– Nicholas Schork, Ph.D.

Learn more about how Saint John’s has become a remarkable contributor to global cancer science.

Blog & Videos (Preview 3:15, Full Program and Q&A 1:11:36): Breakthroughs in Cancer Research: An Educational Event

Educational Event - Future of Cancer Research

Care Excellence with a 5-star Rating

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that Providence Saint John’s Health Center has earned a 5-star rating for providing quality and safe care to our community.

“This change highlighted the importance of a plan’s ability to provide members with continuous positive experiences, in addition to offering quality patient care that meets or exceeds industry standards.”

– ProvidenceHealthPlan.com

Learn more about the significance of the CMS, 5-star rating.

News: Providence Saint John’s Health Center Earns CMS 5-star Quality and Safety Rating

Providence Saint Johns - CMS Five-Star Rated

Why Are Clinical Trials Important?

Doctors, Kim Margolin, Przemyslaw Twardowski, Leland Foshag, Parvin Peddi, Santosh Kesari, and Emma Chacon, RN, Discuss the Impact of Clinical Trials and Advancement of Medical Science.

“All of the advancements that we’ve made in oncology, all these transformational treatments that we have are really the result of participation of patients in clinical trials.”

– Przemyslaw Twardowski, MD

Learn more and listen to some of the principal investigators at Saint John’s Cancer Institute.

Blog, Video (16:45): International Clinical Trials Day: Hear from the experts in cutting-edge research

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The Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship Returns to Saint John’s in Full Swing

Dr. Nicketti Handy Shares Her Fellowship Experience at Saint John’s Cancer Institute.

“We just work really well with being able to accommodate requests from one another and having a really collaborative, close-knit environment. And so again, it ends up being good for patient care but also good from a learner’s perspective.”

– Dr. Nicketti Handy

Learn more about Dr. Handy’s journey as a Surgical Breast Fellow at Saint John’s.

Blog, Video: (17:58): Dr. Nicketti Handy Highlights the Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship

Dr Nicketti Handy - Featured - Saint John's Cancer Institute

Pilot Study at Saint John’s Cancer Institute Shows Promise in Treating Chordoma

Signs of effective treatment of rare spine cancer emerge from clinical trial, revealing novel cell-free miRNA signature as a potential biomarker. Dr. Santosh Kesari of Pacific Neuroscience Institute is Principal Investigator.

“We plan to build on this framework of pemetrexed and combine it with other drugs, including immunotherapy in future clinical trials.”

– Santosh Kesari, MD, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Translational Neurosciences, Director of Neuro-oncology

Learn more about this announcement from Providence.

News: Signs of effective treatment of rare spine cancer emerge from clinical trial at Providence Saint John’s Health Center’s Cancer Institute Pilot study shows promise in treating chordoma

Dr.-Santosh-Kesari-Chair-and-Professor-of-the-Department-of-Translational-Neuro-oncology-and-Neurotherapeutics-at-Saint-John’s-Cancer-Institute

Expert Urologic Oncologist Gets a Colonoscopy then Interviews the Experts at the Digestive Health Institute

Dr. Wilson shares his experience; Doctors, Rudolph Bedford and Anton Bilchik explain screening, diagnosis, and the approach to care at Saint John’s.

“The people in Los Angeles and around the world just need to know how great it is and you guys are two of the guys that helped make that happen.”

– Timothy Wilson, MD

Learn more about the Digestive Health Institute and Dr. Wilson’s Cologuard® screening test.

Blog, Video: 28:30: Expert Oncologist gets a Colonoscopy then Interviews the Experts at the Digestive Health Institute

Doctors, Timothy Wilson, Rudolph Bedford, and Anton Bilchik

A Legacy of Research Excellence

Donald L. Morton, Surgical Oncologist best known for developing sentinel lymph node evaluation

“He was ahead of his peers in anticipating the genetics era of cancer research, for decades he carefully maintained archival specimen resource for correlative translational studies.”

– Laura Morton Rowe, Chief Human Resources Officer, Saint John’s Health Center

Learn more about the Donald L. Morton Complex General Surgical Oncology Fellowship.

OVERVIEW & VIDEO (18:43): Learn more about the Donald L. Morton Complex General Surgical Oncology Fellowship.

Donald L. Morton Complex General Surgical Oncology Fellowship - Saint John's Cancer Institute

Fellowship Programs

Breast Surgical Oncology
Surgical Oncology
Neurosurgery
Translational Molecular Medicine
Urology

Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship

The Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship at the Saint John’s Cancer Institute provides a diverse and comprehensive exposure to the multidisciplinary aspects of breast cancer care and benign breast disease over a one-year time period with a potential second year for continuation of clinical or basic science research.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS FELLOWSHIP

Donald L. Morton Complex General Surgical Oncology Fellowship

With a longstanding history of excellence in multidisciplinary cancer care and research, the Saint John’s Cancer Institute continues its legacy in surgical oncology through the Donald L. Morton Complex General Surgical Oncology Fellowship.

Learn more about this fellowship

Neurosurgical Fellowship

This training program focuses on endonasal endoscopic and keyhole surgical approaches, neuro-endoscopy, pituitary tumor management and multimodality neuro-oncology treatments.

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Postdoctoral Lab-Based Translational Molecular Medicine Fellowship

As pioneers in translational studies on “liquid biopsies” involving circulating tumor cells in multiple types of solid tumors, the fellowship program also consists of studying epigenetic mechanisms regulating solid tumor as well as pharmacogenomics and immunogenomic based prediction of response to therapy.

Learn more about this fellowship

Urologic Oncology Fellowship

Providing world class, multidisciplinary training in genitourinary malignancies and urologic oncology research with innovative and cutting edge technology.

Learn more about this fellowship
Breast Oncology Fellowship - Saint John's Cancer Institute
Donal L Morton - Saint Johns Cancer Institute
neuroscience fellowship
translational molecular medicine
davinci Xi surgical robot

Saint John's Health Center
Saint John's Health Center Foundation
Pacific Neuroscience Institute
Associate of Breast and Prostate and Prostate Cancer Studies