Above, Arnab Chakravarti, MD, chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology, is being interviewed at the groundbreaking ceremony on the West Campus site where the new Proton Center is being constructed. This proton facility will open for patients in 2022 – 2023.
This facility will provide proton therapy, which is an advanced type of radiation treatment that uses protons instead of X-rays to kill cancer cells. This center is being built in collaboration with Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and will bring the first proton therapy facility to central Ohio.
John Grecula, MD is being appointed the president of the International Society of Intraoperative Radiation Therapy, and will serve as president elect from 2020 – 2022. “ISIORT is an open-access, international, non-profit platform. Its objective is to promote research, education, and treatment of cancer patients by intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) by orthovoltage, electron beam or HDR brachytherapy; to encourage liaison among the various medical specialists and allied scientists concerned with the treatment of cancer patients with IORT,” as stated in the objectives of the ISIORT.
Gina Sizemore, PhD was awarded the Department of Defense (DOD) Breast Cancer Breakthrough Grant for 1,500,000 for three years. The Grant is entitled, “PDGFB in Breast Cancer Initiation, Progression, and Metastasis.”
Junran Zhang, MD was awarded the Department of Defense (DOD) Idea grant for $532,875 for two years. The grant is entitled “Targeting Lung Cancer with a Defect in PP2A-B55 Alpha.”
The Ohio State Department of Radiation Oncology was awarded the Accreditation Program of Excellence (APEx) from ASTRO. According to ASTRO guidelines, “Facilities that obtain practice accreditation will have systems, personnel, and policies and procedures that are needed to meet the APEx standards for highest quality patient care.”