Radiation Oncology Update 2008
By Michael Taylor, MD

The most exciting event in 2008 was the arrival of our new physician, Dr. William “Bill” Hall. He joins us from UC Davis in Sacramento where he finished his training with a special interest in stereotactic radiosurgery. Indications for this highly focused, short course treatment approach are expanding to include most cancer sites when a tumor is small and motion can be limited or accounted for. Other short course highly focused approaches to cancer treatment include Mammosite breast brachytherapy where favorable early reports continue to help define ideal patient candidates and a large national trial is maturing. Prostate seed implantation has enjoyed further gains in patient and physician acceptance. We continue to refine our ability to sculpt radiation dose using Tomotherapy for external beam treatments and our Tomo schedule in usually full.

We’ve spent many hours crafting a vision for a new cancer center where chemotherapy and radiation therapy can be combined in the same treatment setting and with optimal technical and patient centered care approaches. This vision will direct our efforts in the years to come. We now have the opportunity to work even more closely with our medical oncology colleagues as new less toxic therapies such as concomitant radiation and cetuximab demonstrate patient benefit. The combination of novel medical therapies combined with highly sculpted radiation treatments should continue to bring exciting new approaches to test through our clinical trials program.

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