Director at UCLA Cancer Center Wins Award for Research

Patricia Ganz, a director at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center in Westwood, has received a $100,000 award for her research on how breast cancer affects the lives of women.

Ganz’s research examined how women treated for breast cancer fared in the months after a mastectomy or lumpectomy. While traditional research focused on determining the most medically effective treatment, Ganz asked women about their quality of life. The survival rate for both methods of treatment is equal.

“It’s having the cancer that really makes people have difficulties or causes disruption,” Ganz said. “It’s not whether you lose your breast or not. It’s the impact of the disease. You might die, you might not be around to take care of your children.”

Ganz, director of the center’s division of cancer prevention and control research, received an Avon Breast Cancer Leadership Award. She was one of 10 physicians nationwide to win the award.

Her research also showed that regardless of which treatment is given, women also generally fared the same in their lives in terms of coping with the disease.

“I can say [with a mastectomy] we are going to have a little more trouble with body image and that will remind you that you had a condition,” Ganz said. “But in terms of how you function, your physical recovery, your relationship with your family or partner . . . they are not going to be any different.”

In another Ganz study that looked at breast cancer survivors one and five years after treatment, the research showed that the women’s health was fairly equal to those without a cancer history. Breast cancer, the most common cancer among women, usually strikes women over 55.

Ganz discovered that despite their illness, many women used the cancer experience to reevaluate their lives.

“Often this occurs in midlife but it can be the catalyst to make changes,” Ganz said. “People often make very positive steps out of what others might view as tragedies.”