UCI Giving Day 2022

When you support UCI cancer research, you help the brightest minds discover and develop treatments that can lead to stories like the one shared by cancer survivor Lorin Jensen. 

Jensen has lived more than 13 years with a malignant astrocytoma, a type of brain tumor with an average life expectancy after diagnosis of 15 to 18 months. He credits his survival to the relentless efforts of pioneering UCI Health neuro-oncologist Daniela A. Bota, MD, PhD, who consistently adjusts his therapy as new options become available.

“Dr. Bota has been a genius,” Jensen says, “She was able to give me experimental treatments, was smart enough to figure out which ones to do, change them when they stopped working, and get me onto something else.”

Dr. Bota is the Medical Director of the UCI Health Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program and Vice Dean of Clinical Research for the UCI School of Medicine. She serves as principal investigator on numerous clinical trials, including innovative treatments using brain tumor vaccines, new targeted drugs and the use of electrical fields to inhibit the growth of gliomas. 

She is one of more than 200 researchers across the UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center who are pursuing treatment innovations and improvements to conquer cancers once considered unbeatable. This National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated comprehensive cancer center—one of only 52 in the nation—is home to national leaders in cancer clinical care and research. Their discoveries are turning a disease that shortens lives into one that can be managed over the course of a lifetime. Their vision is to make it a disease of the past.

Dozens of the center’s most promising pilot studies and early phase clinical trials—including projects involving Dr. Bota—have moved forward with grants funded by the UCI Anti-Cancer Challenge, an annual event to raise awareness and funds for cancer research. 

On Giving Day, your gift to cancer research goes to UCI Anti-Cancer Challenge grants and you help UCI investigators like Dr. Bota pursue breakthrough ideas that change lives. With a gift today, you make more cancer research progress possible.