Dr. Douglas Coldwell is currently Professor of Radiology and Director of Vascular and Interventional Radiology at the University of Louisville in Louisville, KY, USA. He received his PhD in Materials Science from Rice University in Houston, TX and his MD from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston TX. Dr. Coldwell did his residency at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey, PA followed by his fellowship in Interventional Radiology at MD Anderson under the mentorship of Sidney Wallace, MD. He has held numerous faculty posts and is widely published in embolotherapy of tumors and was the first to perform radioembolization in the United States while he was on the faculty of the University of Maryland. He is a Fellow of the Society of Interventional Radiologists, of the American College of Radiology, and of the American Heart Association. Dr. Coldwell also sits on the Medical Device Panel of the Center for Devices and Radiologic Health Division of the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Coldwell is also on the editorial board of RadioGraphics and the Journal of Special Operations Medicine. His current research interests include the clinical response of patients to radioembolization, improvement in the dosimetry of yttrium-90 radioembolization, mathematical evaluation of tumoral arteries, and health policy initiatives.

Dr. Douglas Coldwell’s research interests include intra-arterial brachytherapy, treatment of radiation injuries, and clinical trials.

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Dr. Sandra S. Hatch is professor and Vice-Chairman at Director of Clinical Operations, The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). She received her doctorate in medicine from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX and completed her residency in radiation therapy at Baylor College of Medicine as chief resident. Before entering medical school, Dr. Hatch received her degree in engineering from Tennessee Technological University, which served as a solid foundation for the technological demands found in the field of radiotherapy. She is specialized in breast and gynecological cancers. She is board certified in Radiation Oncology by the American Board of Radiology (ABR) and is a fellow of the American College of Radiology. She is also an active member with the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology & Oncology (ASTRO).

Dr. Sandra S. Hatch research interests are breast and gynecological cancers. Dr. Hatch is presently working on toxicity associated with patient care.She also involved in projects evaluating financial burden of cancer care.

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An award-winning physician with more than 25 years of experience as a leader in oncology, Dr. Demas serves as President and CEO of Cancer Care Center, which is composed of three state-of-the-art radiation therapy facilities across Northeastern Ohio. Following graduation, he completed his internship and residency in Radiation Oncology at Downstate and Kings County Hospital during which he served as Chief Resident for the Radiation Oncology program. Dr. Demas formerly served as the Chief of the Division of Radiotherapy at Summa Health System in Akron, Ohio. Dr. Demas then participated in an advanced fellowship in general Radiation Oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas. As the principal investigator for Summa Health System in the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group, Dr. Demas drove more than $1.5 million in grant funding for clinical research to the institution. Dr. Demas is the author of more than 50 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals and has presented his research at national clinical meetings.

Dr. Demas research interests are hyperfractionated and accelerated radiation therapy and bcnu for supratentorial malignant glioma; evaluation of the effectiveness of the hypoxic cell sensitizer SR-2508 combined with conventional radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous carcinomas; evaluation of accelerated fractionation in the treatment of patients with supratentorial brain metastases; prophylactic hepatic irradiation with local irradiation and systemic chemotherapy for adenocarcinoma of the pancreas; radiation therapy alone or in combination with chemotherapy for patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

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Dr. Marchetti graduated from the University of Pavia, Italy in 1979. He worked as postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois, Chicago (1980-1982), University of Texas Medical Branch – Galveston (Texas) (1984-1986). Assistant Professor at UT-Houston (1999-2001), and Associate Professor and later Professor (with tenure) at LSU-Baton Rouge, Louisiana (2002-2007) prior to joining the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine and Methodist Hospital on October 1, 2015. Dario Marchetti, Ph.D., tumor and molecular biologist, is a tenured and endowed “Jack L. Titus” Professor of the Department of Pathology & Immunology with a joint appointment in the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine. He also acts as Director of the Circulating Tumor Cell (CTC) Core facility at Baylor College of Medicine. On October 1, Dr. Marchetti will be the Director of the Biomarker Research Program at Methodist Hospital Research Institute and Professor of Pathology and Genomics Medicine at Methodist Hospital in Houston.Dr. Marchetti is an international recognized expert and authority in the field of CTCs as clinically useful tools to combat cancer metastasis for improved patient outcome. With keen insights into the biology of brain metastasis, he pioneered models for discoveries of molecular determinants underlying brain metastasis and biomarker properties of brain-homing CTCs. Dr. Marchetti’s bibliography includes 179 publications of which 79 are in peer-reviewed journals in the fields of neuroscience and oncology. He has received numerous awards and secured uninterrupted funding for 25 years by receiving grants from federal, state, institutional and private Agencies. He is a reviewer for the most prominent journals in cancer research. He served/serves on grant reviewing panels of the National Institutes of Health of USA and Italy, the Department of Defense of the United States.

Dr. Dario Marchetti research interest includes Angiogenesis,Metastasis Molecular Determinants of Brain Invasion,biology and clinical utilities of patient-derived Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs); and biomarkers discovery and validation.

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Dr. Chung Kyu Kim Lee is a Professor, Department of Therapeutic Radiology-Radiation Oncology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, USA. She is also a Consultant, Veterans Administration Center, Department of Radiation Oncology at Minneapolis. Dr. Lee received M.D. from Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea, in 1965. She was listed in The Best Doctors in the Twin Cities by Kare 11 for the Department of Radiation Oncology 1999. She was honoured as one of the top 4% of all doctors in the United States as "The Best in America" for the year 2000 and also honoured as one of the "The Best Doctors in America 2007-2008”. Dr. Lee some of the Professional Associations are American Association of University Women (AAUW); American Association for Women Radiologists/Radiation Oncology Committee Member (AAWR) (1/2002 – present); American Medical Association (AMA); American Radium Society (ARS); American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO); American Society of Therapeutic Radiology & Oncology (ASTRO); European Society Therapeutic Radiology Oncology (ESTRO); International Society of Hyperthermia; Minnesota Radiological Society; Minnesota State Medical Association and North American Hyperthermia Society (NAHS).

Dr. Chung Kyu Kim Lee’s Clinical Research Interests are MRI angiography for coronary and carotid vascular changes in post radiation; therapy for Hodgkin’s disease; Breast Carcinoma, conservation surgery and radiation therapy; Bone Marrow Transplantation for Recurrent Hodgkin’s Disease and non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma; Bone Marrow Transplantation for Breast Cancer; Colorectal carcinoma; Head and Neck Cancer; Hodgkin’s Disease; Hyperthermia using Thermotron RF-8; Intraluminal brachytherapy (low-dose rate) for cancer of biliary tract; Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma; Prostate carcinoma; Stereotactic interstitial brachytherapy for brain tumors; Stereotactic Radiosurgery for skull base, head and neck tumors; On-line imaging & Quality Assurance; 3-D Treatment planning; Second malignant neoplasm, long term survivors after radiation therapy; Measurement of tumor PO2 & response of tumor using soft tissue sarcoma, bulky Head & Neck cancer, and hyperthermia patients.

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Dr. Anthony Cmelak is Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology and Senior Medical Director. He is also director of satellite facilities, including the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center at Franklin (VICCAF), the Gateway-Vanderbilt Cancer Center (GVCTC) in Clarksville, Tennessee, and the Vanderbilt-Murray Radiation Oncology Center (VMRO) in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Dr. Cmelak is the Department’s Principal Investigator for cancers of the head and neck, and is also the director of the stereotactic radiosurgery program for the treatment of both intracranial and extracranial neoplasms. He is Vanderbilt’s Primary Investigator in Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) clinical trials, and is a Core Committee member for head and neck cancers in the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), where he has chaired or co-chaired a number of multi-institutional studies. He is a member of the American Society Of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO), and the American Society of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery where he has presented results from a number of research studies. He is the head and neck cancer Track Leader for the annual meeting for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for the past 2 years, and is a member of the Head and Neck Committee for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN).

Head and neck cancer, skull base tumors, CNS neoplasms, novel radiation sensitizers, radiosurgery, HPV-related cancers.

PubMed

Dr. Kaminski is a radiation oncologist specializing in prostate cancer at the Dattoli Cancer Center. He was formally the Director of Radiation Oncology for Genitourinary Malignancies at Georgia Regents University, where he also was the Director of the Gastrointestinal and Central Nervous System Programs in Radiation Oncology and the Co-leader of the Neurological Oncology Multidisciplinary Program. Dr. Kaminski has also served as a Lead Medical Officer at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and as a staff Radiation Oncologist and Medical Officer at the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, respectively and is an international expert in the development of cancer therapeutics, including normal tissue radioprotectors/mitigators, imaging techniques and interventional devices. He has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications. He has also served on medical journal editorial boards, as a consultant for industry, and as an expert panel member for organizations within and outside government including the Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, National Council for Radiation Protection and Measurements, Society of Nuclear Medicine, Radiation Effects Research Foundation, among others.

Dr. Kaminski research Interests are Genitourinary Malignancies, Gastrointestinal, and Central Nervous System malignancies.

PubMed

Dr. Whitlow is an Associate Professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA, where he is Chief of Neuroradiology and Vice-Chair for Faculty Development in the Department of Radiology. He also has cross-disciplinary faculty appointments in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Clinical Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI), serving as Director of the Combined MD/PhD Program and Associate Leader of the CTSI Translational Imaging Program. He got his bachelor’s degree of arts in psychology from East Carolina University, Greensville, North Carolina (1997). Dr. Whitlow completed his Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy from Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina (2004). He did his Master of Healthcare Administration from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (2014). Dr. Whitlow is also a neuroimaging physician-scientist and neuroepidemiologist, with specific doctoral training in translational neurophysiology/neuropharmacology, including experience using human research subjects and research animal models to explore the effects of diseases and conditions affecting brain structure and function. He has received many honours and awards. He has authored 59 peer-reviewed publications and 10 book chapters. . Dr. Whitlow’s extensive training in epidemiology and public health research methodologies has provided him with the critical training necessary to lead large-scale studies of diseases at the population level funded by the NIH.

Dr. Whitlow specializes in structural/functional neuroimaging methods applied to translational paradigms to explore changes in the brain associated with normal development, aging, disease pathophysiology and intervention. He has expertise in processing and statistical analysis of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data acquired from humans and non-human primates, such as arterial spin labeling (ASL) cerebral perfusion, blood oxygen level dependent functional MRI (fMRI), voxel-based morphometry (VBM), and advanced diffusion imaging, such as diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI). He also has expertise in addition functional neuroimaging methods, such as magnetoencephalography (MEG) and positron emission tomography (PET).

PubMed

Dr.Liang Xu got his MD, MS and PhD in Tumor biology/ Molecular immunology, Institute of Gastroenterology, The Fourth Military Medical University, China. Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Experimental Immunology Unit, University of Louvain, Belgium (1994-1996). Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Surgery/ Otolaryngology, Stanford University Medical Center(1996). Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Oncology, Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC(1996-1997). From 2010-present he is working as a Associate Professor with Tenure, Department of Molecular Biosciences,and Associate Professor, Departments of Urology and Radiation Oncology, University of Kansas Cancer Center, University of Kansas Medical School. Director, Division of Cancer Biology, Higuchi Bioscience Center, University of Kansas.Director, Experimental and Preclinical Imaging Core (EPICore), University of Kansas. Director, Biological Irradiation Core (BICore), University of Kansas.

Dr.Liang Xu reserch interest are 1) Novel small-molecule cancer therapeutics - Drug discovery and molecular cancer therapy. His lab has been working on drug discovery for novel small molecule cancer therapeutics targeting cell death pathways, especially for cancer cell radiosensitization and chemosensitization by molecular modulation of apoptosis and autophagy. One of the first lead compounds tested in vitro and in vivo in his lab has entered Phase I-IIb clinical trials as the World’s first small-molecule inhibitor of Bcl-2/Bcl-xL/Mcl-1 entered clinic trials. Currently, they are working on molecular cancer radio-sensitization with novel Mcl-1 inhibitors and with Beclin-mimetics inducing autophagy, as well as novel small molecule inhibitors of RNA-binding proteins Musashi and HuR. 2) Novel nanovector delivery systems targeting cancer and cancer stem cells - Drug/gene delivery. Funded by multiple NIH and DOD grants, his lab works on the tumor-targeted delivery of molecular cancer therapeutics using novel nanotechnology. A self-assembled, virus-mimicking, non-viral nanovector for non-viral tumor-targeted, systemic p53 gene therapy has shown promise in chemo- and radiosensitization of breast, prostate, head and neck cancer, just completed a first-in human Phase I clinical trial and is now in Phase II Trials. Multiple US and International Patents are issued or pending. Currently, they are exploring next generation nanovectors for tumor-targeted delivery of siRNA/miRNA/CRISPR-based therapeutics for targeting cancer and cancer stem cells.

PubMed

Dr. Hualin Zhang received his bachelor’s degree in Physics from Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China. He earned his Ph. D. in Physics Chinese Academy of Science of Space Technology, Beijing, China. Dr. Hualin Zhang is an Associate professor, medical physicist in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Illinois. He has 12 years of clinical experience in radiation oncology. He has passion for Image Guided Brachytherapy: using MRI and CT images for HDR and LDR brachytherapy plans.He personally initiated and implemented the Image-Guided Brachytherapy at a major university radiation oncology department. He has also mastered all skills for Contura and Savy breast Brachytherapy with Oncentra planning system. He has successfully published several peer-reviewed articles.

Dr.Hualin Zhang research interests includes Image guided low dose rate and high dose rate Brachytherapy; Spatially fractionated megavoltage (grid) radiotherapy for bulky tumors; Brachytherapy seed dosimetry.

PubMed

Dr. Yi received his bachelor’s degree with Honors in Biochemistry from UCLA. He earned his medical degree at Boston University School of Medicine with AOA distinction. After completing an internship at Brockton Hospital – Tufts University, Brockton, MA, Dr. Yi graduated residency in Radiation Oncology at the University of California, Davis, where he successfully published several peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Yi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona, Department of Radiation Oncology, where he has an active role in both mentoring and teaching. He has been recognized with several awards including the UAHN Very Important Physician Award in 2014, UA Department of Radiation Oncology Teaching Award in 2015, and the Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology Teaching Award in 2015. He is a member of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). Dr. Yi specializes in treating patients with Head & Neck Cancer in a multidisciplinary setting with the most advanced techniques including SBRT, IMRT, and IGRT. His clinical research interests focus on improving therapeutic outcomes and reducing treatment related toxicities. He currently serves as principal investigator on a phase II prospective randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial evaluating the role of short-course corticosteroids toward the end of radiotherapy.

Dr. Yi research Interests are

1.Optimal Timing of PET/CT post chemoradiation for Head & Neck Cancer.

2.The role of volumetric response utilizing on-board imaging in assessing clinical outcomes for patients treated definitively with chemoradiation therapy for Head & Neck Cancer.

3.The role of short course corticosteroids and its effect on quality of life for patients treated with definitive chemoradiation for Head & Neck and Lung Cancer

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