Wei Chen, MD, PhD

Wei Chen, MD, PhD

Associate Professor, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology
Member, JCCC Community

Specialty

Nuclear Medicine

Languages

English, Chinese - Mandarin

Education

Fellowship

Nuclear Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, 2001-2002

Internship

UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, 1992-1993

Degrees

MD, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, 1992
PhD, Molecular Biology, Harvard University, 1988

Residency

Internal Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, 1993-1995

Board Certification

Nuclear Medicine, American Board of Nuclear Medicine, 2002, 2012

Contact Information

Clinical Interests

Nuclear Medicine With a Main Focus on Cardiac and Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment, Nuclear Medicine-Diagnosis and Treatment of Other Organ Systems

Scientific Interests

The goal of Dr. Wei Chen's research is to explore position emission tomography (PET) tracers to image brain tumors. Specifically, he is looking at FDOPA, an amino acid analogue, and FLT, a marker of cell proliferation. His work has been focusing on characterizing these tracers, validating their use in imaging brain tumors and evaluating their application in diagnosis, evaluating recurrent disease and monitoring treatment response.

Highlighted Publications

Schwarzenberg J, Czernin J, Cloughesy TF, Ellingson BM, Pope WB, Grogan T, Elashoff D, Geist C, Silverman DH, Phelps ME, Chen W. Treatment Response Evaluation Using 18F-FDOPA PET in Patients with Recurrent Malignant Glioma on Bevacizumab Therapy. Clin Cancer Res. 2014 Jul 1;20(13):3550-9. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-13-1440. Epub 2014 Mar 31.

Lizarraga KJ, Allen-Auerbach M, Czernin J, DeSalles AA, Yong WH, Phelps ME, Chen W. (18)F-FDOPA PET for differentiating recurrent or progressive brain metastatic tumors from late or delayed radiation injury after radiation treatment. J Nucl Med. 2014 Jan;55(1):30-6. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.113.121418. Epub 2013 Oct 28.

Schwarzenberg J, Czernin J, Cloughesy TF, Ellingson BM, Pope WB, Geist C, Dahlbom M, Silverman DH, Satyamurthy N, Phelps ME, Chen W. 3'-deoxy-3'-18F-fluorothymidine PET and MRI for early survival predictions in patients with recurrent malignant glioma treated with bevacizumab. J Nucl Med. 2012 Jan;53(1):29-36. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.111.092387. Epub 2011 Dec 12.

Chen W, Delaloye S, Silverman DH, Geist C, Czernin J, Sayre J, Satyamurthy N, Pope W, Lai A, Phelps ME, Cloughesy T. Predicting treatment response of malignant gliomas to bevacizumab and irinotecan by imaging proliferation with [18F] fluorothymidine positron emission tomography: a pilot study. J Clin Oncol. 2007 Oct 20;25(30):4714-21.

Chen W. Clinical applications of PET in brain tumors. J Nucl Med. 2007 Sep;48(9):1468-81. Epub 2007 Aug 17.