Now that we finally have warmer weather, I would like to welcome you to the Summer 2017 Issue of UTDRO News.
Over the last three months, we have wrapped up a few milestone initiatives. Our 25th anniversary celebrations concluded in May 2017. To mark the Department's 25 years, we hosted an insightful discussion with UTDRO's two past Chairs: Dr. Bernard Cummings and Dr. Mary Gospodarowicz. We invited Dr. Danny Vesprini to moderate our discussion, which was also filmed for our community to access.
In addition, we successfully completed our 5-Year External Review in March 2017. The international team of reviewers described UTDRO as one of the top academic cancer programs internationally, “reaching the prowess and reputation of the top North American Departments of Radiation Oncology including MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center”. In particular, the Radiation Oncology Residency and the Medical Radiation Sciences Programs were the “jewels in the crown” of UTDRO. The Self-Study is an outstanding report, describing the achievements of UTDRO during our first 5 years. This was a tremendous effort by the many leaders of our programs, and I am deeply grateful for everyone’s immense contributions to both this Self-Study, as well as having participated in the review itself. At the same time, the reviewers also provided feedback to help us identify opportunities for improvement. This review is available upon request; please send an email to radiation.oncology@utoronto.ca to obtain a copy of the review.
We have also experienced a few personnel changes at UTDRO over the recent few months. Valeria Guido-Taylor, the Department Manager, left her position to assume a new role at UTSC. To replace Valeria, UTDRO successfully recruited Alena Wasney as our new Manager. On the faculty side, Rob Bristow departed to assume an incredible opportunity as the Director of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre in the UK. Brian O’Sullivan and Ida Ackerman retired from their respective positions in March and July 2017, respectively. In addition, congratulations to our faculty who were recently promoted: Catherine Coolens to Associate Professor, and Arjun Sahgal to Professor. Also, a big welcome to our newest appointed faculty members: Aisling Barry, Tatiana Conrad, Ali Hosni, Luluel Khan, Benjamin Lok, Amandeep Taggar and Tiffany Tam.
Lastly, I would like to invite you to join us at our annual UTDRO Alumni Reception at ASTRO, which will take place on Monday September 25, 2017 at Roy's Restaurant in San Diego. Following the Alumni Reception, we will be hosting our Annual General Meeting at U of T's Faculty Club on October 25, 2017.
I look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming events!
Best wishes,
Fei-Fei Liu
Professor and Chair
UTDRO
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UTDRO CHAIRS DISCUSS THE DEPARTMENT'S 25 YEARS
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Interdisciplinary Learning at Target Insight 2017
This year's conference focused on Personalized Radiation Medicine: From Theory to Practice. The invited speakers applied this theme to major cancer sites in addition to sharing their insights about the future of personalized radiation medicine.
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Highlights of Research Day 2017
Research Day started with a Keynote Talk by a previous UTDRO faculty member, Dr. Kristy Brock. Dr. Brock, who is a Professor at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Centre, gave a talk loaded with advice for trainees in radiation medicine.
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37 UTDRO Trainees Join Alumni Family
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This year, 4 Physics Residents, 6 Radiation Oncology Residents and 27 Fellows completed their training programs and received their
diplomas.
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Medical Radiation Sciences 1T7 Graduates Join UTDRO Alumni Family
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The Medical Radiation Sciences 1T7 Class had 36 Radiological Technology graduates, 13 Nuclear Medicine & Molecular and Molecular Imaging Technology graduates and 27 Radiation Therapy graduates.
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Faculty Updates
UTDRO Chair
Fei-Fei Liu has been reappointed for a second term as Chair of UTDRO.
Ida Ackerman will be retiring from her clinical duties as of July 31, 2017. Ida will continue her appointment at UTDRO as Professor Emeritus.
Catherine Coolens has been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor.
The following faculty members have been recently appointed:
- Aisling Barry has been appointed to the rank of Assistant Professor
- Tatiana Conrad has been appointed to the rank of Lecturer
- Ali Hosni has been appointed to the rank of Assistant Professor
- Luluel Khan has been appointed to the rank of Assistant Professor
- Benjamin Lok has been appointed to the rank of Assistant Professor
- Amandeep Taggar has been appointed to the rank of Assistant Professor
- Tiffany Tam has been appointed to the rank of Assistant Professor
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Administrative Staff Updates
Join us in welcoming
Alena Wasney, who has been recruited as UTDRO's new Business Manager.
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Awards and Grants
Lisa Di Prospero has taken on a new role,
Director, Practice Based Research and Innovation, at the Odette Cancer Centre. In addition to this new role, Lisa will continue her role as Assistant Professor at UTDRO.
Joelle Helou, Christiaan Stevens, Charles Catton, Laura Dawson and collaborators have been awarded the UTDRO Collaborative Seed Grant for their project titled “Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy for Renal Tumors.”
Fei-Fei Liu has been awarded the ASTRO Basic/Translational Science Abstract Award, Sr. Investigator in the Biology category for her abstract titled "Mitigating Radiation Fibrosis Through Metabolic Regulation."
Fei-Fei Liu is the recipient of CIHR Project Grant worth $1,147,500 for five years. Her co-PIs are Scott Bratman, Jeffrey Bruce, Benjamin Haibe-Kains, Trevor Pugh, Ilan Weinreb, Wei Xu and Kenneth Yip, and the project is titled "Seeking Molecular Signatures for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma."
Scot Bratman was recognized at ASCO 2017 with the Career Development Award during the Conquer Cancer Foundation Grants and Awards Ceremony.
Congratulations to the following four UTDRO trainees on receiving 2017 CARO/AbbVie Oncology ACURA Uro-Oncologic Radiation awards for their innovative prostate cancer research:
- $16,000 to Aruz Mesci for: Long non-coding RNA UCA1 as a predictive biomarker of Gleason Grade in active surveillance of prostate cancer
- $20,000 to Michael Jones for: A Deformable Dose Accumulation in Prostate Cancer Trial (ADAPT)
- $10,970 to Jonathan So for: Screening kinase inhibitors to target prostate cancer hypoxia and synergize with radiotherapy
- $13,030 to Aravindhan Sundaramurthy for: Focal boost to intra-prostatic GTV using MRI-guided HDR brachytherapy followed by whole gland Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for intermediate-risk Prostate Cancer
Fabio Moraes was awarded the Postgraduate Medical Trainee Leadership Award by the Postgraduate Medical Education Department. << Read about Fabio's award online >>
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Publications
Charles Catton and team published the following article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (p. 1884): Randomized Trial of a Hypofractionated Radiation Regimen for the Treatment of Localized Prostate Cancer
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September 13, 2017 at the Hilton Toronto Hotel
September 13, 2017 at the University Club of Toronto
October 26-27, 2017 at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
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