The Weisenthal Cancer Group was founded in 1992 by Larry Weisenthal, M.D., Ph.D., a board certified medical oncologist with 30 years experience in developing and applying laboratory testing methods to guide therapy selection for individual cancer patients.  Weisenthal Cancer Group is a fully-licensed and accredited oncology laboratory (please click here to see for a link to California and CLIA license numbers) - although we see ourselves as a laboratory-based oncology practice.  This is because Dr. Weisenthal believes that patients deserve more time and individualized attention than can be accorded under the traditional commercial reference laboratory model.  Accordingly, Dr. Weisenthal spends a minimum of 6 to 8 hours personally producing a functional tumor cell profile and therapy recommendation for each patient whose tumor cells are submitted for analysis.   The administrative and technical staff consists of highly qualified and experienced professionals – people who work with pride and precision and are dedicated to providing the highest quality laboratory service to every cancer patient.  No test ever is referred to by a reference number or by its diagnosis but always by the patient’s actual name.  Everyone understands that each test result represents a real person’s best chance to receive the most effective chemotherapy.    

 

Larry M. Weisenthal, M.D., Ph.D. 

 

Please click here to view Dr. Weisenthal's Medpedia listing (contains biographical information, academic appointments, bibliography, etc.)

 

Biographical sketch: Undergraduate chemistry major at U. of Louisville, varsity swim team; entered University of Michigan medical school after 3 years, University awards as most outstanding freshman, sophomore, and junior man; Ph.D. (Pharmacology, laboratory of Dr. Raymond W. Ruddon) and M.D. degrees from U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; internship and residency in internal medicine, U. of Michigan; Clinical Associate, Medicine Branch, National Cancer Institute and Lt Cmdr, USPHS, Bethesda, MD, 1 year post-doctoral research, laboratory of Dr. Marc Lippman, NCI, Bethesda; Board certification in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology.  Originated the DiSC Assay, a cell death-based laboratory test for drug sensitivity and resistance; worked for 8 years in the Section of Hematology-Oncology at the Long Beach VA hospital, as Staff Physician, Clinical Investigator in the VA Central Office Career Development Program, and as Associate Professor of Medicine In Residence at the U. of California Irvine. Three years service as the oncology reviewer for the VA Research Advisory Group. Five years' service on the Expert Advisory Committee for the NCI/NIH Antitumor Drug Screening Program. Co-founded Oncotech (a national clinical laboratory corporation).  Severed Oncotech ties Jan. 10, 1992, to found Weisenthal Cancer Group, a laboratory-based oncology practice.  Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (1993-98); Currently Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology), University of California Irvine. Bibliography includes 45 research papers, reviews, and book chapters; 34 abstracts, 1 Ph.D. thesis, and 2 patents.