Oct 05, 2015 11:46 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

The University of California-Los Angeles is collaborating with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System to provide veterans with access to the latest therapeutic cancer clinical trials and state-of-the-art care.

Veterans have a higher-than-normal risk for many types of cancer, but administrative and financial hurdles often prevent them from having access to clinical trials outside of the VA health care system, where promising new cancer treatments are being tested, according to Dr. Fairooz Kabbinavar, co-leader of the new program and a professor of hematology and oncology at UCLA.

The two-year project will provide a streamlined and patient-friendly system that will allow veterans in the Los Angeles area veterans to enroll in early-phase cancer treatment trials being led by UCLA scientists. It is the first time that Southern California veterans will have access to these clinical trials directly through the local VA, and it is the nation's first program to bring experimental cancer-related treatments to veterans.

"We are gratified and excited that we will be able to extend new, novel and innovative cancer treatments to our veterans for many of the common cancers that they face, such as lung, kidney and prostate cancers," Dr. Dennis Slamon, director of clinical and translational research at the Jonsson Cancer Center and the program's other co-leader, said in a statement.

To facilitate these efforts for veterans, the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and the Jonsson Cancer Center will provide doctors with state-of-the-art patient clinics, diagnostic procedures and laboratories.     

The program's leaders hope that the initiative will serve as a model for other VA facilities.  

"Perhaps the greatest gift we can give to veterans is hope, and it is critical that they play as active a role as is possible in their own health and treatment," Dr. Matthew Rettig, who is leading the VA system's participation, said in a statement.

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