• Myelofibrosis

Dr. Lloyd Damon is a hematologist and researcher who specializes in blood cancers such as lymphomas and leukemias.

Damon studies new treatments for acute myeloid and acute lymphoblastic leukemias. In 1995, he was an early investigator of rituximab, the first monoclonal antibody approved to treat human cancer, specifically lymphoma. (Monoclonal antibodies are cancer-fighting molecules produced in the lab and then infused to work with the patient's immune system against cancer.) In 1998, Damon developed a high-dose regimen for mantle cell lymphoma involving autologous stem cell transplants – which use the patient's own stem cells. When studying cytarabine, an important leukemia drug, he discovered the risk factors for an uncommon toxic effect it can have on the brain and then developed a method for modifying the dose that reduces this side effect significantly.

Damon earned his medical degree at the University of Michigan. He completed an internal medicine residency and a fellowship in hematology and oncology at UCSF, where he joined the faculty in 1988. He is deputy chief of the Divisions of Hematology and Medical Oncology.