INVITED SPEAKERS

Dr. Chen is the Brandmeyer Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology and Associate Director of Health Equity at the University of Kansas Cancer Center. Dr. Chen is a GU radiation oncologist who has written many national guidelines for ASCO, ASTRO and AUA. His research focuses on comparative effectiveness, disparities, clinical trials, and quality of life, and he has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles.Dr. Chen earned a Bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas, an MD from Harvard Medical School and a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his residency and served as chief resident at the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program.

Dr. Isabelle Choi is the Clinical Director and Director of Research at the New York Proton Center and lead of the Breast Cancer and Gastrointestinal Cancer Services at NYPC.  Her research focus is in improving outcomes, reducing toxicities, and improving radiotherapy treatment delivery for breast, gastrointestinal, and thoracic malignancies.  She is also an Assistant Member of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she is a member of the breast service. Among her select national leadership appointments, Dr. Choi is Chair of the Physician Advisory Committee of the National Association for Proton Therapy, Chair of the ARS AUC Breast Committee, Chair of the Proton Collaborative Group (PCG) Breast Committee, and Chair of the PCG Publications Committee.

Jason A. Efstathiou, MD, DPhil, FASTRO, FACRO is Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), Vice-Chair for Faculty & Academic Affairs and Director of the Genitourinary (GU) Division in the Department of Radiation Oncology, and Clinical Co-Director of The Claire and John Bertucci Center for GU Cancers at Massachusetts General Hospital/Mass General Brigham. He is an internationally recognized leader in GU malignancies. He serves as Principal Investigator or Co-Chair of multi-center, NCI-sponsored, randomized trials in prostate and bladder cancer and his research has informed clinical guidelines and made novel contributions to topics such as proton therapy for prostate cancer and bladder preservation therapy. Dr. Efstathiou holds multiple leadership and Board positions within professional societies (ASTRO, ASCO, ABR, ACRO, ROI, NRG Oncology), within patient advocacy organizations (BCAN, MPCC), and within the NCI where he serves as Co-Chair of the GU Steering Committee. In addition, he has a strong proven track record in teaching and mentorship and was awarded the A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award from HMS. Dr. Efstathiou holds a B.S. from Yale University, M.D. from HMS, D.Phil. from the University of Oxford, and completed his residency training in the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program.

Stella Flampouri joined the Emory University Department of Radiation Oncology faculty and the medical physics team at Emory Proton Therapy Center in 2019. Before that, she received her PhD in Medical Physics from the Institute of Cancer Research in the UK, completed her post-doctoral fellowship at MGH, and was faculty at the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute. Stella's research interests include the evaluation of proton radiation dose uncertainties and investigating techniques to mitigate the effects.  She has been working on lung and lymphoma proton treatment planning and delivery methodologies and is involved in multiple multi-institutional clinical trials.

Steven J. Frank, MD, is an endowed tenured professor of Radiation Oncology and holds the Bessie McGoldrick Professorship in Clinical Research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.  Dr. Frank is the Executive Director of the Particle Therapy Institute and Deputy Head of Strategy for the Division of Radiation Oncology.  Dr. Frank’s lab is studying the biologic enhancement factor of proton therapy and FLASH radiotherapy for head and neck cancer, as well as MRI-Assisted Radiosurgery (MARS) as the next generation of prostate brachytherapy. Dr. Frank has approximately 300 peer-reviewed publications, has authored many book chapters, and has recently published the first textbook on Proton Therapy based on the MD Anderson experience. 

Matthew Hall, MD, MBA is the lead pediatric radiation oncologist and chief of the sarcoma and skull base radiation oncology services at Miami Cancer Institute, Baptist Health South Florida.

Bradford Hoppe, M.D., MPH, is a Professor of Radiation Oncology and the Medical Director of Particle Therapy in Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL. He graduated from Cornell University Medical College and went on to do his training in radiation oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC. Following residency, Dr. Hoppe worked at University of Florida for 11 years, where he was the James Lockwood endowed Professor of Proton therapy. In 2019, he was recruited by Mayo Clinic Florida to be the Particle Therapy Medical Director.

Dr. Hoppe is an international expert in particle therapy and lymphoma, serving on the steering committees for PTCOG-NA, ILROG, and the COG pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma. His research interests focus on improving therapeutic ratio in the management of lymphoma and solid cancers by reducing the risk of toxicities from radiation, while simultaneously trying to improve cure and overall survival with proton therapy. His contributions have helped shape the national management guidelines for prostate cancer, lymphoma, and lung cancer.

Dr. Kabarriti is an Associate Professor and Attending Radiation Oncologist at the Department of Radiation Oncology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY and Director of Head and Neck Disease & Modality Team clinical research at Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center. His focus is on optimizing radiation therapy for head and neck and gastrointestinal cancers and combining advanced radiation therapy techniques including SBRT and proton therapy with novel therapeutics and immunotherapy to improve outcomes for these patients. He is the PI of multiple investigator-initiated clinical trials. His laboratory investigates strategies to ameliorate radiation-induced toxicities such as radiation induced liver disease and mucositis. He has co-authored over 75 peer-reviewed publications, multiple book chapters and has received multiple research awards and funding including the ASCO Young Investigator Award, Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program Fellowship Award, the Paul Calabresi K12 career development award, and the AIDS Malignancy Consortium fellowship award.

Dr. Koontz trained at Harvard Medical School, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Duke University School of Medicine. In 2007 on completion of training she joined as faculty in the Department of Radiation Oncology, earning tenure as an Associate Professor and serving in several leadership roles. From 2021 to 2023, she was the US Chief Medical Officer for GenesisCare, a global oncology network and research organization. She now leads Radiation Oncology services at the AdventHealth Cancer Institute in Orlando Florida. Her interests are in promoting excellence of clinical care for patients with genitourinary malignancies and developing clinical and translational research to improve both the treatment of and recovery from cancer.

Dr. Lin, an Associate Research Professor and Director of Medical Physics at the esteemed New York Proton Center, also holds adjunct faculty positions at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Albert Einstein School of Medicine. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics and M.S. in Medical Physics from the University of Missouri in 2009. His journey into the field led him to undertake medical physics residency training at UPenn, where he later distinguished himself as Chief Resident. Before his current role, Dr. Lin was the lead proton physicist at UPenn's Proton Center.

His professional pursuits center around proton therapy radiation dosimetry, treatment planning, motion management, and pioneering advanced techniques such as FLASH RT and SFRT (Spatially Fractionated Radiotherapy). Dr. Lin is an engaged member of numerous prestigious professional societies, including AAPM, ASTRO, PTCOG, ABR, RAMPS, RSS, NRG, ECOG, and IAEA.

Dr. Lin's scholarly contributions are substantial, with over 50 peer-reviewed publications, 5 book chapters, and more than 140 conference abstracts to his credit. He further enriches the field as an editorial member of journals like Medical Physics, JACMP, Cancers, and Frontiers in Oncology. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, Dr. Lin was honored with AAPM Fellow status in 2023.

I did my doctoral work at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where I developed an optical technique to investigate antibody - adsorption kinetics using surface plasmon resonance as a probe. My post-doctoral work was in proton radiation therapy at the Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory where I focused on particle beam line calibration including discovery of edge scattering effects. My primary research interest centers on constructing standardized large scale data bases from routine practice data for use in integrating artificial intelligence driven modeling into clinical care. As Director of Informatics and Analytics in the Department of Radiation Oncology I led our team in creation of our platform, named the Michigan Radiation Oncology Analytics Resource System (MROAR), that aggregates, integrates and harmonizes data from the several commercial data systems used to treat radiation oncology patients into a single, easy to use platform.

Dr. Radhe Mohan, PhD, FAAPM, FASTRO, is a professor and the holder of the Larry and Pat McNeil Chair in the Department of Radiation Physics at MD Anderson Cancer Center.    Dr. Mohan’s extensive experience includes pioneering contributions in wide array of areas of radia-tion physics and oncology.  Since 2005, his research has been focused on various physical, clini-cal, biological aspects of proton therapy and, more recently, on immunomodulatory effects of proton therapy.  He has over 450 in peer-reviewed publication.  He was the Senior Physics Edi-tor of The International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics from 2002 through 2011.  Dr. Mohan has been the Co-Principal Investigator three 5-year National Cancer Insti-tute’s Program Project grants on proton therapy.   Additionally, he has been awarded numerous research grants by the NCI and industry.

Harald Paganetti is a Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School and Director of Physics Research for the Department of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He received his PhD in experimental nuclear physics in 1992 from the Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Bonn, Germany. He has been working in radiation therapy research since 1994 and has made many significant contributions to the field of radiation oncology physics and biology, specifically in proton therapy. He has published close to 300 peer-reviewed articles and has an h-index of 81 on google scholar. He has also edited 3 books on proton radiation therapy. His research interests include planning and delivery uncertainties in radiation therapy, biological effect modeling, Monte Carlo dose calculation, advanced optimization and imaging techniques as well as understanding radiation induced toxicities and systemic effects on the immune system. His work has been funded mostly by the National Institute of Health, including 7 R01 grant awards as Principal Investigator throughout his career. In 2022 he received the PTCOG Robert R. Wilson Award for significant contributions to the field of particle therapy.

Mark Pankuch is the Director of Medical Physics at the Northwestern Medicine Chicago Proton Center where he oversees medical physics related operations for the proton center and 5 nearby photon centers within the West and North regions of Northwestern Medicine. The proton center has been treating patents since 2010, with over 6000 patients treated thus far.  Over the past several years, Dr. Pankuch has given numerous presentations on the topics of Proton Therapy at the local DOE labs, professional meetings, and vendor sponsored educational talks. He currently is involved in several research projects including funded collaborations in proton imaging.

Dr. Stephanie Perkins is the S. Lee Kling Endowed Chair of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine.  She serves as the Director of the S. Lee Kling Proton Therapy Center and Chief of the Pediatric Radiotherapy Service.  Dr. Perkins attended medical school at the University of Tennessee, Memphis and completed her residency training at Washington University.  She specializes in the treatment of pediatric cancers with a focus on proton therapy.  She also cares for adult patients with sarcomas, brain tumors and brain metastases, including expertise in Gamma Knife radiosurgery.  Her research interests are focused on the late effects of therapy in childhood survivors of brain tumors.

Nicholas Remmes, PhD, DABR has been practicing proton therapy at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) since Mayo Clinic first started treating with proton therapy in 2015.  He is currently the program director of the Mayo Clinic Clinical Medical Physics Residency Program in Radiation Oncology, the Mayo Clinic Proton Medical Physics Fellowship Program, and the Mayo Clinic Proton Medical Physics Professional Enhancement Program.  He is the physics co-chair for the RADCOMP Pragmatic Randomized Clinical Trial of Proton vs. Photon Therapy for Patients with Non-Metastatic Breast Cancer.  Dr. Remmes’s interests include the use of proton therapy in breast cancer, shielding and radiation safety in proton therapy, the practical application of LET enhancement and biological models in proton and heavier ion therapy, the use of proton therapy in patients with implanted electronic devices, and the use of proton therapy for pregnant patients.

Charles B. Simone, II, MD, FACRO is Research Professor and Chief Medical Officer of the New York Proton Center. He is also a Full Member in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is an internationally recognized expert in proton therapy to treat thoracic malignancies and reirradiation, and in developing innovative clinical trial strategies in thoracic oncology.  He was previously Chief of the Thoracic Oncology Service, Director of the Penn Mesothelioma and Pleural Program, and Director of Clinical Research and Operations in Radiation Oncology at University of Pennsylvania.  He then became Medical Director of Maryland Proton Treatment Center.  At Maryland, he was also Chair of the Clinical Research Committee for their Comprehensive Cancer Center, proton therapy Fellowship Director, and Director of Stereotactic Radiation Therapy. He completed his undergraduate and medical training at UPenn and radiation oncology residency at NCI/NIH, where he was chief resident.

Since 1998, I have been the Director of Pediatric Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering who cares for children and young adults with cancer. I have extensive experience treating rare diseases in young people such as sarcomas, brain tumors, neuroblastoma, Wilms tumor, and lymphoma. Radiation therapy is an extremely powerful tool for these tumors, but young patients are especially sensitive to long-term side effects. I therefore approach each patient as a unique individual, carefully designing a highly customized radiation therapy plan to maximize the benefits of treatment while minimizing side effects. I am a leader in the use of targeted approaches such as proton therapy, intensity-modulated radiation therapy, image-guided radiation therapy, and intra-operative radiation therapy for pediatric cancers.

I am involved in numerous clinical trials within my institution as well as conducting large international studies for the Children’s Oncology Group. I am involved with research on the late effects of radiation therapy through my collaboration with the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. I have published over 360 peer reviewed papers and have trained hundreds of radiation oncology residents.

• Education: MD, University of California San Francisco
• Residencies: Radiation Oncology - Stanford University Medical Center
• Board Certifications: Radiation Oncology

Dr. Yacoub is an attending radiation oncologist at the New York Proton Center and specializes in the treatment of head and neck cancers, brain tumors, central nervous system (CNS) tumors, and ocular cancers.

Dr. Yacoub has worked closely with some of the foremost experts in the field, conducting numerous impactful studies on the benefits of proton therapy for head and neck malignancies, and leading the international guidelines on proton therapy for brain malignancies. Before coming to the New York Proton Center, Dr. Yacoub completed a dedicated brachytherapy fellowship at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, specializing in the use of interstitial, intracavitary, and intraoperative brachytherapy in the treatment of many adult and pediatric malignancies.

Yoshiya (Josh) Yamada is an attending radiation oncologist in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. A graduate of the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine, he completed a residency in Radiation Oncology at the Princess Margaret Hospital, University of Toronto, and completed a fellowship in brachytherapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering, after which he joined the faculty. Currently he serves as co director of the spine oncology service at MSKCC.

Dr. Jonathan Yang is an Associate Professor in the University of Washington’s School of Medicine Department of Radiation Oncology. He serves as the Director of Metastatic Disease and Developmental Therapeutics in the Department. His clinical and academic expertise is in metastatic disease, including oligometastasis, central nervous system malignancies, and precision radiation oncology through rational combination of novel therapeutics with radiotherapy for which he serves as the principal investigator of several ongoing first-in-human trials investigating DNA damage response inhibitors with radiation. He is also focused on translational biomarker development to guide appropriate treatment selection in patients with metastatic cancers. In addition, Dr. Yang has a special interest in the management of solid tumor leptomeningeal metastasis where his research using proton therapy has demonstrated promising survival benefit and elucidated the unique biological process in the central nervous system after proton therapy.