Moving On in 2008

As we approached the day of the move to the new James P. Wilmot Cancer Center about 200 yards down the street, the cast of the Department of Radiation Oncology posed for this photo in front of the old building, which housed the department's clinical services and offices for over 30 years.

DRO Education Initiatives:

    The Education division, and in particular the DRO Residency Program, involves both active teaching and the publication of a wide variety of material pertinent to the field of radiation oncology. The Education Division is uniquely designed to provide education for a broad range of health care practitioners and patients. Above all else, the University of Rochester is a teaching institution as well as a center for delivering patient care. The Education Division offerings a diversity of programs serving a wide range of students, practitioners, and patients. Through flexibility, creativity, and variety, the Education Division meets the life-long educational needs of these individuals by keeping them abreast of the rapidly changing medical and scientific knowledge.

The new James P. Wilmot Cancer Center -- opened May 2008
    The DRO had its beginnings in 1957 in what we know as our radiation biology laboratory area. Growth dictated our expansion into a new center thirtysome years ago, which was one of the first NCI-designated centers in the country. The research conducted there made a huge impact on how cancer is treated worldwide, and textbooks we wrote became standard in many medical schools. Such is the nature of technological advancement that here in 2008 we find ourselves in yet another center. There is amazing technology here for patient treatment that was unimaginable just a short time ago. I forsee that we will continue to lead the way in training physicians and discovering new treatments for cancer patients worldwide. It makes me smile to think that after five decades, our very original home in the radiation biology area is still helping to advance medicine for mankind.

Passion for Life...           Passion for Cure Gala
    On July 26, the Rochester Riverside Convention Center was the setting for the Passion for Life...Passion for Cure Gala. It was held in honor of Barbara Caruso Fogarty, who died this past December at age 53 after a nearly three-year battle with lung cancer; and her radiation oncologist Paul Okunieff, MD whose ongoing research in the Robert Flavin Shaped Beam Surgery Center gave Barbara two-and-a-half additional years of life that she would not have had otherwise. Beth Doherty, RN, MS, ANP, AOCN and Karen Kowiak, RN, BSN, members of Dr. Okunieff's service team, were also recognized for their supportive efforts and commitment to Barbara's care.
      Carl Fogarty and children Chris, Lauren, and Joe and several other family members and friends planned this gala that included cocktails, dinner, musical entertainment, and auctioning of items donated by numerous Rochester area businesses. For more information, please visit http://www.passionforlifegala.com/

DRO Residentcy Program

Our Radiation Oncology Residency program is one of the premier programs of its kind in the nation. Shown here with the reknowned Dr. James Cox, our own Dr. Yuhchyua Chen and visiting scientist Douglass Clark (back-row, left of center), are the seven residents in Spring of 2008. From left to right: Ken Usuki, Deepinder Singh, Sheema Chawla, Madeline Sampson (now at Jordan Hospital, Plymouth MA), Su Metcalfe, Tithi Biswas (now at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital), and Hong Zhang (now a faculty member of the University of Rochester Medical Center)

Stereotactic Radiation Therapy
    As a patient, you will benefit from state-of-the-art technology to treat your disease. Wilmot radiation oncology experts have been advancing therapeutic radiation since the 1940s. In this setting, we are not only increasing the number of linear accelerators, we are installing the latest in technology.
    For example, with the addition of the Trilogy image-guided radiation therapy system, we build upon our capability to destroy the tiniest tumors in delicate organs. The Trilogy system is faster and more powerful than other equipment and delivers radiation with pinpoint precision, using an on-board imaging system that can zero in on the size and location of a patient's tumor moments before each treatment.
    We've also made enormous improvements to the environment for people undergoing radiation therapy with the addition of spacious changing rooms and imaginative lighting installations in the treatment rooms.