Second Opinion

Honestly, UCSF is the number one spot to be at. I was somewhere else when first diagnosed, did a lot of research, I even live 10 minutes from Stanford, and decided to try UCSF as my second opinion. 2 years later and I have not regretted that decision one bit. Excellent doctors that listen and will give all of the most relevant information needed to make informed decisions as a patient. You can certainly decide to get a second opinion somewhere else, but if you live nearest to UCSF, find yourself blessed as I do that we have the best care so closeby… as a lot of patients don't have that luxury. Patients travel from hundreds to thousands of miles away from SF to get treated there, I have had many great conversations in the infusion clinic with people from all over. 

I am sure you'll get some good feedback here about other places you can look for second opinions 🙂

If you really want to get an idea of what other melanoma hospitals are doing, take a look at their home pages where they list different trials that they are running as well as there staff. A couple of ideas would be in your part of the country "The Angeles clinic" and Dr. Omid Hamid, i know they are working with a new Tils program and are running several different melanoma trials. You might also look into MD Anderson in Texas where they are doing some pretty cool stuff. They have on staff, Dr. James Allison who lead the team that discovered Ipi and also Dr. Pam Sharma who is looking at new ways to develop trials for smaller groups and taking samples of tumor after giving drug for a few weeks, then removing tumor and then look under the microscope to see what is going on, kind of cool stuff going on there. Best Wishes in your journey!!!Ed

I’ll put a second on Ed’s ideas. I’m on the opposite side of the country from you, San Diego (That’s sort of a joke but there’s a reason I say it). If beyond UCSD I were to need a second opinion then my plan is to go to UCLA and if I’m in a complete bind then I’m going to go to MDA.

UCSF and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance are awesome too.

UCSF was my "back up" plan if I didn't like the care at USC. I'm sitting about an hour closer to LA than I am the bay area, or I'd be at UCSF with USC or UCLA as back up. 🙂  UCSF has a great reputation. That said… if you really would like a 2nd opinion, Stanford is a close choice, and if money and time aren't road blocks… why not shoot for the top ranked in the nation with MD Anderson? Heck… if you're getting on a flight out of San Fran, you may as well leap to Houston where the cancer center seems to have better infrastructure in place for out of town patients. They also get the lion's share of trials because of their connections and reputation.