Moores Cancer Center Director's Vision for Innovation and Patient Care

Cancer care is at a crossroads. As advances in biotechnology, precision medicine and artificial intelligence (AI) unlock exciting new treatment possibilities, critical hurdles remain: rising cancer rates, disparities in access and gaps in early detection. Since becoming director of Moores Cancer Center in April of 2024, Dr. Diane Simeone has steered the institution forward, maximizing UC San Diego’s strengths in research and technology, becoming a model for advancing health equity and, above all, keeping a steadfast focus on the patient at the center of it all.

“In both our thinking and action, everything must revolve about the patient,” Simeone says. “How do we use our talent and tools to make life easier and better for patients with cancer? How do we improve the quality of life and survival from this disease that turns someone’s world upside down in an instant?”

Simeone’s answer to those questions is both far-reaching and laser-focused, a visionary approach that blends leading-edge science with novel partnerships, community access and engagement, and world-class
education. Simeone is creating a blueprint for the next chapter in the fight against cancer — harnessing the innovation, collaboration and care that constitute the heart of Moores Cancer Center.

Trials, Partners and Healing

“In many situations, the best treatment for a patient with cancer will be clinical trials. They truly are the gateway to improving outcomes,” says Simeone. As part of her bold reimagining of cancer treatment, Simeone has made significant investments in Moores Cancer Center’s clinical trials office, streamlining processes to open new trials and increasing the portfolio of available studies. This effort brings patients access to the latest and most promising therapies, many of which are being developed right in the area.

"In many situations, the best treatment for a patient with cancer will be clinical trials. They truly are the gateway to improving outcomes." Diane Simeone, MD

“We want to fully leverage the great ideas that are being grown here,” says Simeone, referring to the many breakthroughs that come out of UC San Diego, UC San Diego Health, and the various neighboring institutions and companies developing advanced medical technologies alongside Moores Cancer Center.

For instance, Moores Cancer Center is currently applying AI to optimize care delivery, enhance radiological imaging and develop algorithms that predict treatment responses and cancer risk. In research, the center is working to uncover which therapies work best for patients on genomic level, studying therapeutic resistance and tailoring treatments with AI-enhanced genetic analyses. This level of precision medicine is the cornerstone of Simeone’s vision for a new age in cancer care.

“Eventually, when a patient walks into a clinic, we will be able to pull up the genetic sequencing of that patient’s tumor and determine the best treatment option on the spot,” Simeone explains. “In some ways, this is already happening with a few of our priority cancers.”

Simeone’s specialization in pancreatic cancer — a notoriously challenging disease — has shaped the center’s focus on cancers with the most urgent unmet needs. Prostate, lung, pancreas and human papilloma virus-related cancers are currently being addressed with multiomic analysis, AI and a new clinical trial infrastructure that brings together innovators to put research into action.

“There’s a high level of collaboration at Moores Cancer Center,” she says, “and with our next-level partnerships between scientists and clinicians, the institutions nearby and the hundreds of companies here on what’s called ‘Biotech Beach,’ when you look to see where the most innovative ideas come from in the near future, it’s going to be right here in San Diego.”

Increasing Access to Excellence

Whether it’s advanced clinical trials or leading-edge partnerships, the benefits will have limited impact if they stay only in La Jolla. That’s why expanding access to treatment and increasing health equity are equally driving forces behind Simeone’s vision. She and Moores Cancer Center’s community outreach and engagement leaders are partnering with federally-qualified health centers and local hospitals around the area to reach under-resourced populations in Imperial County, North County and even up to Riverside County. And with the massive revitalization of Hillcrest Medical Center, there will be a brand-new hub bringing leading-edge medicine and compassionate care to patients all throughout the San Diego area.

This expanding geographic presence is also part of Simeone’s plan to make Moores Cancer Center a leading institution in broadscale cancer screening, an area where gaps in access are starkly apparent. In the case of colon cancer, for example, screening rates at Moores Cancer Center may approach 90%, but rates elsewhere often hover between 10% and 40%. Simeone is leading initiatives to provide free screening programs at
community centers and launching public—private partnerships to pilot new, less invasive screening techniques using blood or other biological sampling.

“Early detection and prevention is how we're really going to move the needle and increase cancer survival. Because if you talk to people in the community and across the country, what they want is to not get cancer in the first place. And if they do, let’s catch a tiny little cancer that we can either cut out or radiate or ablate so that people can go on living their lives. That is the ideal scenario we are working toward.”

What will get us there is what Simeone calls “a culture of connection” — connection between innovators, within the community and, of course, in every interaction with every patient. Along with innovation and collaboration, this patient-first ethos will be instilled in the next generation of clinicians and researchers as Simeone, together with Moores Cancer Center’s Cancer Research Training and Education leadership, develops educational programs that blend a groundbreaking technological approach with genuine sincerity and compassion in patient care. For all that her vision encompasses, there is but one focal point shared by Simeone and her cancer center leadership team:

“The health of our patients,” she says. “That’s what we wake up thinking about, and that’s what we go to bed thinking about. That is our collective mission.”