ASTRO is accepting educational session proposal submissions for next year’s meeting through Monday 1/9/2023. For those who plan to submit, keep in mind that ASTRO’s theme for 2023 is “Pay It Forward – Partnering with Our Patients.” The link to the submission site will be in an email sent to those on the SPRO mailing list.
SAVE THE DATE! The Canadian Palliative Radiation Oncology Group (CPROG), led by Dr. Kristopher Dennis and now formally under the umbrella of the new Supportive Care Committee of the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology (CARO), will be hosting a virtual event on November 17th. Please email admin@spro.org if you would like to request the Zoom invitation. Topic: CTG SC.24 / TROG 17.06: A Randomized Phase II/III Study Comparing 24Gy in 2 Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT) Fractions Versus 20Gy in 5 Conventional Palliative Radiotherapy (CRT) Fractions for Patients with Painful Spinal Metastases Presenter: Dr. Sten Myrehaug, core SC.24 trial Committee Member and Radiation…
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We are now seeking nominations for volunteers to serve on one of five SPRO committees. To nominate either yourself or someone else, please email the SPRO Executive Committee at admin@spro.org and include a paragraph summarizing your interest in one or more of the committees, your relevant skills, and CV. More information on the structure and responsibilities of the committees is located under the membership tab and can also can be found: here.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposes an innovative payment model in radiation oncology that will align payment to quality and value instead of volume. More information located here.
Tell us a little about yourself:
I grew up with four sisters in a small city in Florida called Ocala. With my dad as a chiropractor and my mom as a pharmacist, I became interested in health care at a young age. I also loved math and physics, so I decided to study biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University. I ultimately decided to go into medicine because I saw how special and privileged the patient-doctor relationship was.
Why did you go into radiation oncology?
As a senior biomedical engineering student, I took a design course in which I was randomly grouped with a radiation oncologist and a head and neck surgeon. We worked on a project using intraoperative point tracking and deformable image registration to better delineate post-operative tongue resection margins, with a goal of minimizing the volume of high dose radiation targets. I instantly loved radiation oncology from an engineering perspective. When I started medical school at Vanderbilt University, I began shadowing in the radiation oncology department, and I also loved the clinical aspects of the specialty. I was drawn to how radiation oncology exists at the intersection of advanced technology and human experience.
Why were you interested in joining SPRO?
I became interested in palliative care as a medical student when I learned the importance of focusing not only on quantity of life but also quality of life. I had the opportunity to observe the implementation of an inpatient palliative radiation oncology service, and I saw the added value of having a dedicated radiation oncologist who can spend time discussing goals of care and prognosis with patients. I was interested in joining SPRO to continue learning how to best serve patients with incurable cancers.
Feel free to share on any projects that you have been working on that may be of interest to our members
Recently, I collaborated with the Department of Radiology to create a diagnostic CT protocol that can be ordered after-hours, when CT simulation is unavailable, and utilized to plan urgent radiation treatments. Currently, I am developing a surveillance protocol for patients after completing palliative radiation for painful bone metastases, with aims to catch new or recurrent sites of bone pain and prevent missed opportunities for additional palliative treatments.
Favorite quote?
“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life…and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
– Henry David Thoreau
