James R. Higgins, MD

Dr. Jarod DuVall is a primary care physician who practices in Encino. He is board certified in internal medicine, and focuses on preventive medicine and helping patients manage their chronic medical conditions. Raised in Orange County and trained in Los Angeles, Dr. DuVall understands and embraces the diversity of Southern California. He enjoys working with patients from all backgrounds and believes in creating a safe, welcoming and non-judgmental environment. He employs a multidisciplinary,…

Dr Palaskas joined the Encino Cancer Care practice in 2017 and is excited to help fulfill the mission of UCLA in bringing access to clinical trials and academic-center level care to the Encino community. He is a Clinical Instructor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and clinician-investigator. He completed his Hematology/Oncology fellowship at UCLA and is a graduate of the Specialty Training and Advanced Research Program. Dr Palaskas is a native of the American Midwest but spent many years in Europe, including attending medical school in Thessaloniki, Greece. He trained in Internal Medicine at St Elizabeth�s Medical Center in Boston, a TUFTS University affiliate. Prior to his Fellowship at UCLA, he cared for complicated cancer patients with multiple medical problems at a Partners Healthcare Long Term Acute Care facility in Cambridge MA. As a member of the Ingo Mellinghoff lab at UCLA and later at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, he contributed to preclinical research into mechanisms of tumor resistance to targeted therapies, new metabolic inhibitors targeting a mutated version of the enzyme IDH, and treatment targets for lymphomas of the brain. An IDH inhibitor is now approved by the FDA for the treatment of relapsed and refractory acute myeloid leukemias. Pulse-dose lapatinib is currently being tested in a phase II clinical trial sponsored by the Jonson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA in patients with an aggressive form of brain tumors and expected to be completed in 2019. The substantial activity of Ibrutinib in a phase I trial in relapsed and refractory brain lymphomas was reported in Cancer Discovery. Dr Palaskas is now interested in using metabolic interventions to improve the already promising activity of cancer immunotherapies.

Dr. Jonathan Barthelet is a primary care and extensivist physician who practices in Santa Monica. As a member of the UCLA Extensivist Program, a medical home that cares for high-risk, complex patients who are more likely to be hospitalized, he is particularly interested in clinical informatics and high-value, low-cost care. He is board certified in internal medicine. Dr. Barthelet received his medical degree from the Stony Brook School of Medicine in New York. He then completed his internal…