Prostate Cancer Brachytherapy

Pr. Franck Bladou graduated from the University of Bordeaux Medical School in France in 1984 and completed his urology residency training at University of the Mediterranean, Marseilles in 1990. He then pursued a 3-year clinical fellowship in Marseilles and a 18-month research fellowship in prostate cancer at the University of Washington, Seattle. In 1997 he was appointed Full Professor of Urology at University of the Mediterranean and followed his career as a clinical urologic oncologist, teacher and researcher in the university hospital and in the regional cancer center as Director of the uro-oncology team in Marseilles. In 2007 he became the Head of the Department of Urology at Sainte Marguerite hospital in Marseilles. Finally, in 2010 he was appointed the Chief of the Department of Urology at the Jewish General Hospital and Full Professor of surgery (Urology) and Oncology at McGill University. His surgical expertise and proctorship are in the field of laparoscopy, robotic surgery and brachytherapy. He is actively involved in French and European teaching programs for residents, in national guidelines for urological cancer surgery quality insurance. His scientific activity is centered on new prostate cancer imaging modalities (MRI, molecular imaging techniques) and quality improvement of urological cancers surgical management.

Dr. Serge Carrier is an associate professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Urology at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Dr. Carrier is a urologist at McGill University Health Center. Dr. Carrier obtained his medical diploma from the Laval University (Quebec, Canada) where he also completed his urology residency. Dr. Carrier then completed his training as a post-doctoral fellow in andrology, sexual medicine and neurourology at the University of California, San Francisco with Dr Tom F. Lue and Emile Tanagho. His Major Academic Focus and areas of research: Men’s health, Reproduction and Hypogonadism, Sexual and bladder dysfunction, Prostate Health and BPH. He has published over 60 papers. Dr. Carrier is the immediate past-president of the Quebec Urological Association. He served on the board of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America as the Treasurer. He has been the president of the Société Francophone de Médecine Sexuelle as well as of the Canadian Male Sexual Health Council. He also is a peer reviewer for many journals including the JSM, J urology and Urology.

Dr. Joanna Cygler was born and educated in Poland. Currently she is employed as a Senior Medical Physicist at The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre, specializing in radiation therapy. Dr. Cygler also holds academic appointments as a Professor at the Department of Radiology, University of Ottawa and as an Adjunct Research Professor, Department of Physics, Carleton University. She is a Fellow of Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine and a Fellow of American Association of Physicists in Medicine. She has been a member of several Task Groups on subjects such as Quality Assurance of Treatment Planning Systems, Clinical Implementation of Monte Carlo Treatment Planning and Luminescence Dosimetry. She has authored over 60 peer reviewed scientific papers, over 160 conference abstracts, 7 book chapters, as well as co-edited an 1100 page book on Clinical Dosimetry Measurements in Radiotherapy related to the AAPM Summer School she co-directed in 2009. Dr. Cygler is also a co-inventor on 2 US patents and a consultant to International Atomic Energy Agency on in-vivo dosimetry.

Dr Derashodian is a radiation oncologist working at BC Cancer Kelowna. Centre Intégré de Cancérologie de la Montérégie, at Charles LeMoyne hospital. She graduated from Université de Montreal’s medical school in 2005. She then completed her residency in radiation oncology at Université Laval. She pursued her academic training at University of Miami with a fellowship in Urologic cancers under the supervision of Dr Alan Pollack. She then started her practice at Centre Intégré de Cancérologie de la Montérégie, at Charles LeMoyne hospital, and gained expertise in general brachytherapy.  Her main areas of expertise include urologic, gynecologic, and skin cancer, as well as general brachytherapy.

Peter Hoskin trained in clinical oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital London and has been consultant in clinical oncology at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, Northwood UK since 1992. He is also Professor in Clinical Oncology at University College London. Research interests focus on radiotherapy quality assurance, palliative radiotherapy, and brachytherapy. He chairs the GEC ESTRO urological brachytherapy group UROGEC and is a member of the GEC ESTRO committee and ESTRO Board as well as Clinical Editor for Radiotherapy and Oncology.

With an MD degree from the Université de Montréal, Dr. Marjory Jolicoeur founded Curietherapies in 2012, a non-profit organization that she still presides over today. A renowned radiation oncologist, she did her residency at Université de Montreal in 1996, before completing a brachytherapy fellowship at the Centre Georges-François Leclerc located in Dijon (France). In 1997, she started working at the department of Radiation Oncology of Université de Montréal, where she still teaches. A mere two years later, she was appointed medical consultant for all planning, construction and equipment selection processes of the new Radiation Oncology department of Hospital Charles-Le Moyne. She innovates by equipping the department with a suite and a comprehensive image-guided brachytherapy program. As a brachytherapy specialist, she has special research interests in its application to pathologies such as breast, genitourinary and gynecologic cancers. Her main focus is on the development of image guided implant procedures, the use of MRI in brachytherapy and the precision delivery of conformal high dose rate brachytherapy. She also teaches brachytherapy nationally and internationally. 

Samuel Kadoury is an associate professor in the Computer and Software Engineering Department at Polytechnique Montreal, member of the Biomedical Engineering Institute at the University of Montreal and researcher at the Sainte-Justine Hospital and CHUM research centers. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Medical Imaging and Assisted Interventions at Polytechnique Montreal. He obtained his Bachelors in Computer Engineering, his Masters in Electrical Engineering from McGill and his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from University of Montreal in 2008, focusing on orthopaedic imaging. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Ecole Centrale de Paris and worked as a clinical research scientist for Philips Research North America at the National Institutes of Health from 2010 to 2012 on fusion guided prostate biopsies. Prof. Kadoury has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in leading journals and conferences in fields such as biomedical imaging, computer vision, radiology, urology and neuroimaging, and holds many patents in the field image-guided interventions.

Ms. Lauzon obtained her Masters’ degree in Medical physics from Université de Montréal in 2008. She worked as a medical health physicist in radiation safety at Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal from 2008 to 2011. She transferred to Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux (CISSS) de Laval in May 2011, before the opening of their brand new cancer center. This is where she participated in the commissioning of four linear accelerators. In collaboration with the head physicist, she wrote the complete radiation safety program of the radiation oncology department. She was also actively involved in the development of the brachytherapy quality assurance program. She participated in the commissioning and acceptance testing of the HDR unit, as well as gynecological applicators and treatment planning system. Ms. Lauzon was certified by the Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine in 2015. That same year, she was nominated to be in charge of starting the prostate HDR program at CISSS de Laval. She was responsible for the coordination of multidisciplinary group meetings, as well as being actively involved in the commissioning of the prostate HDR equipment. Ms. Lauzon is currently active as a clinical medical physicist at CISSS de Laval.

Fellowship en curiethérapie; Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA MSc médecine expérimentale; Faculté de médecine, University Laval, Québec, Québec “Diplôme d’étude supérieurs en radio-oncologie”; University Laval, Québec, Québec Doctorat en médecine; Faculté de médecine, Université Laval, Québec, Québec Bachelier en Pharmacie; École de pharmacie, Université Laval, Québec, Québec

Alvaro A. Martinez, M.D. received his medical degree from Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia. He completed a radiation oncology residency program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Following his residency, he became an Assistant Professor at Stanford University Medical School in Palo Alto, California. In 1981, he joined the department of Oncology at Mayo Clinic Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota where he achieved the position of Associate Professor. He was appointed Chairman of the department of Radiation Oncology at Beaumont Hospital Royal Oak, Michigan in 1985 where he was a Professor of Radiation Oncology at Oakland University William Beaumont Medical school. For the past five years, he has been a Senior VP of Scientific and Clinical Strategy at 21st Century Oncology of Michigan, a division of Michigan Health care professionals. Taking advantage of his surgical training, Dr. Martinez achieved outstanding expertise in brachytherapy and he designed special applicators which are widely used for the treatment of patients with gynecological and other pelvic malignancies. He is a member of numerous national and international professional organizations and is highly regarded by his peers for his professional accomplishments. He was president of the Michigan Society of Therapeutic Radiology in 1989 and president of the American Brachytherapy Society in 1991. Dr. Martinez is certified in radiation oncology by the American Board of Radiology and was awarded a fellowship in the American College of Radiology. Dr. Martinez has been a member of several National Cancer Institute review committees. He has been an associate editor for many national and international medical journals, and has contributed to more than 340 articles in prestigious scientific medical journals. In additional, he has written and contributed to more than 45 chapters in textbooks.

Dr Ménard is a radiation-Oncologist at The CHUM. She is also a professor at Université de Montréal. After her medical degree at University ofCalgary, she made a residency at University of Manitoba. She had her Fellowship at the National Cancer Institute of Bethesda. From 2004 to 2015 she was a professor at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre

A obtenu son M.SC. de l’université McGill en physique du solide en 1982. Après plusieurs années d’enseignement, elle s’est spécialisée en physique médicale appliquée à la radio-oncologie. Elle travaille dans cette spécialité depuis 1989. Elle a fait sa certification MCCPM et FCCPM en 2000 (membre et fellow du Collège canadien des physiciens en médecine). Elle a travaillé 2 ans à l’hôpital de Chicoutimi, 9 ans au Centre hospitalier de l’université de Montréal et 10 ans à l’hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont. Durant ces années, elle a eu la chance de toucher les différents secteurs de la physique médicale en radio-oncologie : acceptation des appareils de traitement en téléthérapie, modélisation des plans de traitement, dosimétrie de techniques spéciales, radioprotection et curiethérapie. Depuis 2010, elle est responsable de la physique médicale section curiethérapie à l’hôpital Charles LeMoyne.

Full time clinical radiation oncologist at the Vancouver Cancer Centre from July 1991- present Major contributions: 1- Cofounder (1997) and Provincial Head (1997-2007) of the BCCA’s Provincial Prostate Brachytherapy Program This program is the largest program of its kind in Canada having treated >6000 men and operates full service prostate Brachytherapy in 4 of its 5 regional cancer centres. 2-Creator and Principal Investigator of the ASCENDE-RT Phase III, multicentre randomized control trial ASCENDE-RT is the only RCT to successfully randomize men to Brachytherapy versus dose-escalated external beam radiation therapy for locally advanced prostate cancer. The first three peer reviewed articles have now been published. 3- Creator and Principal Investigator for Focal Brachytherapy pilot study This BC Cancer Foundation-funded has now completed accrual and initial analysis (first peer reviewed paper is currently under peer review). To further this work, Dr. Morris formed a multidisciplinary team with investigators from BCCA Centre of Excellence Functional Imaging, the UBC Prostate Centre, and the UBC ECE department, and the UBC 3T MRI centre in a multi-million dollar CIHR grant application to further develop the technology and focused brachytherapy boosts to regions of known tumor within the prostate. Publications/speaking engagements: • ~170 peer reviewed publications • Invited speaker and/or faculty in ~26 national and international meetings since 2005

Dr. Tamim Niazi received his Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery (MDCM) designation from McGill University in 2001. He did his internship and residency at the McGill University Health Centre. During 2006 - 2007, he was the Clinical Trials Fellow at the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group (NCIC-CTG). He is currently an Assistant Professor of the Department of Oncology at McGill. His expertise include GU malignancies, mainly prostate cancer and upper GI such as gastric, pancreas and esophageal cancers. Dr. Niazi has designed and conducted numerous national Phase II and Phase III clinical trials with over 5 million dollars in research grants. In addition, Dr. Niazi has developed numerous innovative investigator-initiated clinical trials based on his own prior experience and preliminary data. Amongst others, Dr. Niazi’s research interests include combination trials of systemic therapy and targeted radiation therapy in prostate cancer with significant emphasis on correlative/biomarker components. ...

HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA July 2005-June 2006 Abdominal Imaging and Intervention Fellowship McGILL UNIVERSITY, Montreal, Canada July 2000-June 2005 Radiology Residency UNIVERSITY OF MONTREAL, Montreal, Canada Sept. 1995-May 2000 Doctor in Medicine EDOUARD-MONTEPETIT CEGEP, Longueuil, Canada Sept. 1993-May 1995 “Diplôme d'études collégiales en sciences” HOSPITAL APPOINTMENTS • Sir Mortimer B. Davis – Jewish General Hospital – Montréal, Québec July 2006 - present o Staff Radiologist ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS • Resident coordinator, Jewish General Hospital July 2011 - present • Assistant Professor of Radiology, McGill University July 2006 - present • Chief Fellow, Brigham and Women’s Hospital April 2006-June 2006 • Academic Chief Resident, McGill University July 2004-June 2005 • Assistant Chief Resident, McGill University July 2002-June 2003

Dr. Pollack is Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Miller School of Medicine. He obtained a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Miami and after 5 years of translational research matriculated at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in the Ph.D. to M.D. program. After graduating, he did an internship in internal medicine at Jackson Memorial Hospital before doing a residency in radiation oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. While at M.D. Anderson, Dr. Pollack attained the rank of Professor, was Director of the Residency Training Program and was a co-leader of the GU group before assuming the Chair in Radiation Oncology position at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia in 2001. He held that position for 7 years before returning to Miami in his current position as Chair and Professor of Radiation Oncology in 2008. Research Interests Dr. Pollack’s research interests have centered on the management of prostate cancer with radiotherapy (RT), the role and length of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), radiation dose escalation, fractionation, tissue and imaging markers of outcome and small molecule/gene/viral vector targeted therapy.

Dr. Carl Salembier received his medical degree from the Free University of Ghent (RUG -Belgium) in 1991 and graduated as Radiation Oncologist at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL-Belgium) in 1996. He is board certificated by the Belgian Ministry of Public Health. He also completed one year fellowship in brachytherapy at the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. J.J. Battermann. Dr Salembier is head of the radiation-oncology department at the Europe Hospitals Brussels, the largest private hospital in Brussels. His expertise includes GU malignancies, breast cancer and all fields of brachytherapy. He is involved in brachytherapy at both the national and European levels and in brachytherapy projects in ESTRO as member of the Uro-GEC association. He is co-chair of the FALCON (Fellowship in Anatomical deLineation and CONtouring)-group of ESTRO

Dr. Eric Vigneault received his medical degree from the University of Montreal in 1992. In addition to completing his residency training in radiation oncology at the CHUQ Hôtel-Dieu de Quebec Hospital in 1997, Dr. Vigneault obtained a Master of Science degree in experimental medicine in 1996. He also completed a one year and a half fellowship in brachytherapy and three-dimensional external beam radiation therapy at the University of California San Francisco under the supervision of Dr. Mack Roach in 1998. He is involved in brachytherapy at both the provincial and national levels, as Chair of the Province of Quebec brachytherapy committee, and was president of the Canadian Brachytherapy Group from 2002 to 2006. Dr Vigneault was head of the Hotel-Dieu of Quebec Radiation-Oncology Department from 2003 to 2007. Since September 2015 Dr Vigneault is the president of the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology and the Titular of the new Research Chair on Image Guided Brachytherapy

Dr. Villeneuve attended University of Montreal medical school from 2002 to 2007 where he also completed his specialty training in radiation oncology in 2012, with a special interest in prostate brachytherapy. Upon his arrival in Chicoutimi, he launched the prostate brachytherapy program, but still works as a general radiation oncologist. Beside his medical career, Dr. Villeneuve is an accomplished marathoner but mostly the proud new father of a 2-month-old little boy!