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Eric Nakakura, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Contact Information
San Francisco, California 94143-1932
(415) 353-9888 - Patient Appointments
(415) 353-9294 - Academic Telephone
(415) 353-9296 - Fax
eric.nakakura@ucsfmedctr.org
Education
- 1986-90 University of California, San Diego B.S. Bioengineering
- 1990-95 Stanford University School of Medicine M.D.
Residencies
- 1995-96 Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Intern General Surgery
- 1996-03 Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Resident General Surgery
- 2001 John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford University General Surgery
Fellowships
- 2003-04 Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Fellow Surgical Oncology
Postdoctoral Training
- 1998-01 Johns Hopkins University Ph.D. Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Board Certification
- American Board of Surgery, 2004
Program Affiliations
- GI Oncology Program
- Member, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Surgical Oncology Laboratroy
- Sarcoma Program at UCF
Clinical Expertise
- Benign Neoplasms of the Gastrointestinal Tract
- Bile Duct Cancer
- Carcinoid Tumors
- Colorectal liver metastases
- Gallbladder cancer
- Gastrointestinal cancer
- Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST)
- Islet cell tumors
- Liver Cancer
- Minimally Invasive Surgery
- Neuroendocrine Tumors
- Pancreatic cancer
- Pancreatic cysts
- Retroperitoneal Neoplasms
- Soft Tissue Sarcomas
- Stomach (Gastric) Cancer
- Whipple Procedure
Research Interests
- Neuroendocrine (NE) tumors of the gastrointestinal (GI) Tract
- The role of proendocrine transcription factors and signaling pathways in normal and neoplastic gut
- Early detection of neuroendocrine tumors
- Targeted therapy for treatment of neuroendocrine tumors
- Concurrent EGFR and mTOR blockade in patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors
- Translational studies of cancers of the pancreas and gastrointestinal tract
Biography
Dr. Eric Nakakura is a cancer surgeon who specializes in tumors of the pancreas, bile ducts, liver, and gastrointestinal tract. He also treats soft tissue sarcomas, including tumors of the retroperitoneum, trunk and extremities. At the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, he participates in the management of complex gastrointestinal tract cancers, soft tissue sarcomas and gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors, including carcinoid and islet cell tumors.
Dr. Nakakura earned a medical degree at Stanford Medical School and a doctorate degree in cellular and molecular medicine at the Johns Hopkins University. He completed a residency in general surgery at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and was a specialist registrar in surgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England. He completed a fellowship in surgical oncology at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Dr. Nakakura, an assistant professor of surgery at UCSF, studies endocrine differentiation in gut and gastrointestinal tumors and cancer stem cells.
Research Summary
Neuroendocrine (NE) tumors of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract frequently metastasize. Surgery is often not possible for patients with advanced disease, and current therapies are ineffective for shrinking tumors and durable palliation of debilitating hormonally-mediated symptoms. Dr. Nakakura and his colleagues have as a long-term goal is to elucidate the transcriptional and signaling events critical to the pathogenesis of NE tumors of the GI tract, which can identify novel targets for diagnosis and treatment.
Developmental biology provides important clues and Dr. Nakakura and his fellow scientists have found that the same transcription factors and signaling pathways that function in the normal development of endocrine cells throughout the body also act to regulate NE tumor hormone production and growth, as well as metastasis. Their findings that conserved pathways of NE differentiation function in cancer have also shed important insight into normal gut endocrine cell development.
The group has ongoing studies to evaluate the role of proendocrine transcription factors and signaling pathways in normal and neoplastic gut using in vivo and in vitro model systems. In addition, Dr. Nakakura has leveraged his unique skills as a surgical oncologist to develop novel NE and other gastrointestinal cancer xenografts and cell lines, invaluable resources to the entire research community.
This work is complemented by studies of human GI NE tumors and of clinical studies of patients suffering from this disease. Dr. Nakakura is also active in bench-to-bedside (translational) studies aimed at earlier detection of NE tumors at at time when there is still the possibility of surgical resection. He is also investigating new and novel therapies for patients with advanced disease who have inoperable tumors.
Selected Publications
- Nakakura EK, McCabe SM, Zheng B, Shorthouse RA, Scheiner TM, Blank G, Jardieu PM, Morris RE. A non-lymphocyte-depleting monoclonal antibody to the adhesion molecule LFA-1 (CD11a) prevents sensitization to alloantigens and effectively prolongs the survival of heart allografts Transplant Proc, 1993;25(1):809-12.
- Nakakura EK, McCabe SM, Zheng B, Shorthouse RA, Scheiner TM, Blank G, Jardieu PM, Morris RE. Potent and effective prolongation by anti-LFA-1 monoclonal antibody monotherapy of non-primarily vascularized heart allograft survival in mice without T cell depletion. Transplantation, Feb/1993;55(2):412-7.
- Nakakura EK, Shorthouse RA, Zheng B, McCabe SM, Jardieu PM, Morris RE. Long-term survival of solid organ allografts by brief anti-lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 monoclonal antibody monotherapy. Transplantation, Sep/15/1996;62(5):547-52.
- Nakakura EK, Watkins DN, Schuebel KE, Sriuranpong V, Borges MW, Nelkin BD, Ball DW. Mammalian Scratch: a neural-specific Snail family transcriptional repressor. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, Mar/27/2001;98(7):4010-5.
- Nakakura EK, Watkins DN, Sriuranpong V, Borges MW, Nelkin BD, Ball DW. Mammalian Scratch participates in neuronal differentiation in P19 embryonal carcinoma cells. Brain Res Mol Brain Res, Nov/1/2001;95(1-2):162-6.
In the News
UCSF Scientists Illuminate How microRNAs Drive Tumor Progression
UCSF News Office - Sep 16, 2009UCSF researchers, led by Doug Hanahan, Ph.D. (left), have identified collections of tiny molecules known as microRNAs that affect distinct processes critical for cancer progression. The findings help elucidate the important regulatory function of microRNAs in tumor biology. Eric Nakakura, M.D., Ph.D. (right), a surgeon-scientist who treats patients with challenging pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, was on the team that validated the findings, which were based on an exquisite mouse model of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Many of the same altered microRNAs in were found to be present in human pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. This represents a major advance in our understanding of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor biology, one that might be exploited to better treat patients.
Surgical & Therapeutic Advances in Pancreatic Cancer
Pancreas Cancer News Vol. 4, No. 1, July '09 - Jul 15, 2009"Surgery for pancreas cancer is long and demanding, and surgeons must be practiced to consistently perform it well. Pancreas cancer surgery outcomes are better at high-volume, major medical centers such as UCSF, where surgeons can specialize - perfecting and maintaining skills and deepening their experience and judgment." UCSF surgeons Kimberly Kirkwood, M.D., and Eric Nakakura, M.D., Ph.D., achieve outstanding outcomes for standard procedures and also perform operations rarely offered elsewhere for select patients who would otherwise not meet criteria for surgical treatment.
Advancing the Treatment of Adult Soft Tissue Sarcomas
Orthopedic Surgery News at UCSF Medical Center - Dec 25, 2008"Soft tissue sarcomas are extraordinarily heterogeneous, so experience is particularly important when deciding among treatment options," says medical oncologist Thierry M. Jahan, M.D. (pictured right). At UCSF, referring physicians typically send patients with painful, growing soft tissue masses to orthopaedic surgeon Richard J. O'Donnell, M.D., and general surgeon Eric K. Nakakura, M.D., Ph.D, (pictured left). If their initial examination convinces them that there is a sarcoma concern, they move on to a staging workup that includes various imaging modalities and, eventually, either a needle or incisional biopsy...."
