New Avenues in Brachytherapy

Dr. Beaulieu is a full professor, Director of the CAMPEP graduate program and also Director of the Cancer Research Centre at Université Laval. He served on the Board of the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists as President Elect, President and Past President (2010-2016). He is a member of the AAPM Brachytherapy Subcommittee as well as two associated Working Groups (Robotics and Clinical Applications), is the Chair of TG317 on tracking technology for brachytherapy, a member of the ESTRO In Vivo dosimetry working group, was the Chair of TG-186 and until recently led the AAPM/ESTRO/ABG Working Group on Model-Based Dose Calculations in Brachytherapy. He has mentored over 150 highly qualified personals, published 220 peer-reviewed manuscripts and 465 refereed abstracts at national and international meetings. He is a recognized expert on topics related to scintillation dosimetry and brachytherapy. Luc

Jean-François Carrier is a medical physicist at the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal. He also holds the titles of Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the Université de Montréal and Associate Research Professor in the Department of Radiology, Radiation Oncology and Nuclear Medicine at the Université de Montréal. He joined the CHUM in 2005, following completion of graduate studies at Université Laval (PhD 2005) and Cornell University (MSc 2001). During his career, he combined clinical tasks (brachytherapy, CyberKnife and mainly 4D radiotherapy), administrative (Acting physicist coordinator between 2015 and 2017, head of the CAMPEP program at the Université de Montréal since 2017) and research program (funded by NSERC for 11 years, supervisor of 28 graduate students).

Jean-Charles Côté completed his PhD in physics at Université de Montréal in 2000. His thesis focuses on pseudo adiabatic RF pulses in MRI. Since 1998, he has been working as a physicist in the CHUM's Department of Radiation Oncology. From 1998 to 2003, he is actively involved in brachytherapy. Since the installation of an MRI in radiation oncology in 2013, his tasks have specialized on this subject. He is currently working on MR-only treatment pathways.

Dr Derashodian is a radiation oncologist working at 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. Her main areas of expertise include urologic, gynecologic, and head and neck tumors, as well as general brachytherapy.

Slobodan Devic finished his studies of physical sciences at the Faulty of Physics, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1989.  At the same university, he obtained his M.Sc thesis working in the experimental non-ideal plasma physics in 1991 and his Ph.D thesis in the solid state physics working on new high temperature super conducting materials in 1997.  He entered the medical physics field in 1998 as a post doc at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology in Saint Louis, Missouri. Working as a member of Jeffrey Williamson’s group, he was developing experimental techniques for verification of Monte Carlo dose calculations for brachytherapy applications using plastic scintillator materials.  In February 2000, he enrolled the AAPM accredited residency program at Medical Physics Unit of McGill University. As of March 2002 he became a staff member in Radiation Oncology Department of the Montreal General Hospital. In December 2008, he moved to the Jewish General Hospital and was put in charge of establishing brachytherapy program with CT-simulator within brachytherapy suite.   Apart from his clinical duties, his research interests revolve around image guided pre-operative endorectal brachytherapy, GafChromic film dosimetry, and PET/CT based treatment planning. As of 2018, he holds an appointment of Associate Professor with Department of Oncology at McGill University.

Phillip M. Devlin, MD, FACR, FASTRO, FFRRCSI(Hon) is Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Division of Brachytherapy in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center. Dr. Devlin earned his medical degree at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1991 and completed his residency in Radiation Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1995, followed by a specialized fellowship in brachytherapy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 1996.   In addition to lecturing extensively both nationally and internationally, Dr. Devlin has more than 100 published manuscripts and book chapters, and is editor of the text, Brachytherapy: Applications and Techniques, now in its second edition. He is a past President of the Massachusetts Radiological Society and was previously a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). In 2008, he was named a Fellow of the American College of Radiology (FACR), and in 2013 he became both a Fellow of ASTRO (FASTRO) and a Faculty of Radiology Honorary Fellow in the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (FFRRCSI[Hon]) and a Fellow of the American Brachytherapy Society. Dr. Devlin led two funded studies as part of the ACR’s Quality Research in Radiation Oncology (QRRO) project. His current research focus is on radioreponsiveness and gene expression in cutaneous lymphoma treated with brachytherapy. He continues to lead internationally in developing and deploying innovative brachytherapy techniques to expand the scope of practice, teaching and research.  

Shirin A. Enger is a tenured associate professor at Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, McGill University, and Canada research chair in medical physics. Her main research interest is brachytherapy with an overall aim to enable patient-specific brachytherapy dose planning and delivery. She leads a research group with focus on novel brachytherapy technology. Dr. Enger completed her PhD at Uppsala University, Sweden in 2008, and her postdoctoral fellowship at Université Laval, Quebec, Canada during 2009 to 2011. During 2012 to 2014 she held a position as assistant professor in Medical Physics at Uppsala University prior moving to Montreal and her current position at McGill University.

Dr Fontanesi has been in practice more than 25 years .He received his medical education from American University of the Caribbean and performed his internship at Ellis Fishell State Cancer Center in Missouri. He completed his Therapeutic Radiology residency at St. Mary's Hospital and Medical Center/West Coast Cancer Foundation. He also completed a Brachytherapy fellowship at the University of California - Davis/Veterans Administration Hospital. He followed his fellowship by becoming an attending physician at St Judes Children's Research Hospital where he was instrumental in developing the stereotactic radiation program along with re-introduction of brachytherapy in children. He left SJ CRH to ta'ke a position at Detroit Medical Center where he became a full professor and continued to explore the field of brachytherapy with the use of Cf 252 sources. After stops at Cedars Sinai in Los Angles and University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Dr Fontanesi returned to where he was born, Detroit:There he was able to initiate a very active brachytherapy practice and has continued to publish and work with residents and fellows. Dr. Fontanesi is a member of the American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, Children's Oncology Group, Radiation Therapy Oncology Group, and Southwest Oncology Group. He is a past president of the American Brachytherapy Society and help organize the unified GEC/ESTRO : ABS joint meeting that continues to be held every 4 years. He has well over 100 peer reviewed publication and multiple chapters in text books dealing with various subjects including brachytherapy. He continues with research with investigating the role of low dose whole brain irradiation in the treatment of Alzheimer's Dementia. Dr. Fontanesi is affiliated with Beaumont Health Systems, Detroit Medical Center and McLaren Health Systems. His primary treatment locations are Beaumont Health Farmington Hills and Beaumont Hospital Royal Oak.

Director, Division of Radiation Oncology, McGill University Health Centre Associate Professor, Department of Oncology, McGill UniversityDr. Hijal is a radiation oncologist specializing in the treatment of breast cancer, digestive and hematologic malignancies. His research focuses on assessing new radiation treatments for breast and rectal cancers, such as preoperative one-day radiation treatments for breast cancer. He is also involved in improving radiotherapy care through the use of databases and machine learning.

"Associate Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford Cancer Center  Dr. Horst’s clinical and research interests includes radiotherapy for breast cancer, focusing on accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) for early-stage breast cancer. She completed her MD and residency at Stanford University and has successfully developed an APBI program at Stanford Medical Center. Having published several manuscripts addressing MRI and mammographic findings in patients eligible for APBI, Dr. Horst continues to investigate radiotherapy treatment outcomes."

Dr. Jolicoeur had her medical degree along with a Ph.D in Molecular biology and completed her radiation oncology residency at University of Montreal in 1996. she completed 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 University of Montréal, where she still holds a position as a professor. In 1999 she was appointed to the planning and construction of the new department of Radiation Oncology of Hospital Charles LeMoyne. The facility, which started his activities in 2011, has a comprehensive image guided brachytherapy program. In 2011 she founded “Curietherapies”. As a brachytherapy specialist, she has special research interests in the application of brachytherapy in area such as breast, genitourinary and gynecologic cancers. Her main focus is in the development of image guided implant procedures, the use of MRI in brachytherapy and the precision delivery of conformal high dose rate brachytherapy.

Eric Leung is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and a Clinician-Investigator in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre. He is originally from Saint John New Brunswick and graduated from medical school at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.  He completed his residency and fellowship training at U of T and specializes in interstitial and MR-guided brachytherapy.  Dr. Leung has an interest in cervical cancer clinical trials and is a member of the Cervix Core Committee at NRG Oncology and the Cervix Executive Committee at CCTG. His other academic interests include translational studies in cervix cancer including metabolic imaging for patients with locally advanced gynecological tumours. 

Dr. Lin is Professor with Tenure and Chief of Urologic Oncology in the Department of Urology, the Director of the Institute for Prostate Cancer Research, and holds the Pritt Family Endowed Chair in Prostate Cancer Research at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Lin received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his medical degree from Vanderbilt University. He completed his urology residency at the University of Washington and urologic oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, followed by an American Foundation for Urologic Disease (AFUD) Physician Scholar Award at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.    Dr. Lin serves on various national committees including the guideline panels for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and the American Urological Association (AUA). Dr. Lin was Chair of the Male Genital Panel for the American Joint Commission on Cancer (AJCC) 8th Edition. Dr. Lin is co-Chair of the Prostate Cancer Task Force of the NCI GU Steering Committee and is Chair of the Localized Prostate Cancer Committee for the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG).  Dr. Lin is on the Board of Directors for the Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO) and the SUO Clinical Trials Consortium (SUO-CTC), currently the Treasurer of the SUO.  Dr. Lin’s major basic/translational research interests are in molecular/genomic biomarkers for aggressive prostate cancer, and his major clinical research efforts are in prostate cancer active surveillance and novel strategies in high-risk prostate cancer. Dr. Lin is the lead PI for the Canary Prostate Active Surveillance Study (PASS) since its inception in 2008. Dr. Lin is also co-PI of the Pacific Northwest Prostate Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) and co-Lead of the Prostate Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Dr. Lin receives funding from multiple peer-reviewed grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Department of Defense (DOD).

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. Gerard Morton is a radiation oncologist at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre and an associate professor at the University of Toronto.  He has a clinical and academic focus in prostate cancer and brachytherapy, is program director of the University of Toronto Brachytherapy AFC training program, and is chair of the Royal College Brachytherapy AFC committee.  He co-chairs several ongoing multicentre clinical trials, is co-chair of the ASTRO Annual Meeting GU Track, and is North American Editor for Clinical Oncology.  He has published extensively on prostate cancer.   ...

Nicole Nesvacil is an associate professor at the department of Radiotherapy, Medical University ofVienna (MUV), Austria, since 2018. After her PhD in Astronomy in 2009, she joined the brachytherapyteam of Dr. Richard Pötter at MUV and Dr. Christian Kirisits and has since been involved in clinicalbrachytherapy physics as well a variety of research activities focused on MRI-guided radiotherapy.Her research focused on clinical uncertainties and their impact on dose reporting, as well as strategiesfor combining different imaging modalities (MRI, CT, transrectal ultrasound) for image-guided adaptivetreatment concepts. Recently she has also taken a key role in the implementation of an MRI-onlyworkflow for EBRT at the department.As part of the EMBRACE research group and the Vienna study office (www.embracestudy.dk), she isresponsible for brachytherapy data monitoring in the ongoing prospective interventional multicenterEMBRACEII trial on image-guided adaptive radiotherapy for cervical cancer. Her ongoing research isdedicated to the development of tools for evidence-based decision support in MRI-guided RT, based onthe department’s long clinical and scientific history in the field.She has a key interest in medical physics education and is teaching undergraduate medical students atMUV, as well as trainees in the Austrian international postgraduate program for Medical Physicists. In2016 she joined the ESTRO School faculty for teaching courses on “Advanced Brachytherapy Physics”,and “Image-Guided Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy in Gynecological Cancer”.

Marija Popovic is a board certified staff Medical Physicist at McGill University Health Centre and Assistant Professor in the Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology at McGill University.  Dr. Popovic earned a PhD in Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences from McMaster University in Hamilton, ON and then completed a clinical residency in Medical Radiation Physics at Juravinski Cancer Centre.  Since 2012, she has focused on brachytherapy with Intrabeam in breast and, more recently, brain treatments.  Dr. Popovic is on the editorial board of Journal of Applied and Clinical Medical Physics.  She is currently the chair of the Education Committee for Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists.  For the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), she is a member of Task Groups TG295 on Electronic Brachytherapy Dosimetry and TG292 on Educational Requirements for Medical Physics Leadership Academy.  Her passions outside of work are her family, travelling and hiking with her dog Sunny.

McGill Nuclear medicine residency, NYU PET/CT fellowship, Jewish general hospital staff MD then JGH chief of nuclear med. ...

Dre. Marie-Lynn Racine has completed her residency in Radiation Oncology at the Université de Montréal. She has completed a first Fellowship in Brachytherapy at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital affiliated with the Harvard Medical School in Boston and a second Fellowship at the Centre Alexis-Vautrin in Nancy. She is currently working at the Hôpital Charles Lemoyne on the south shore of Montréal.

Ananth Ravi, Ph.D., MCCPM is a board-certified medical physicist, and clinical operations lead of the brachytherapy program at the Odette cancer center. He is an assistant professor in the department of radiation oncology at the University of Toronto and an affiliate scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute. Dr. Ravi’s primary research focus is on developing and implementing technologies that will have an immediate and profound impact on patient’s quality of life during and after treatment.  His research team works towards creating and improving novel image guidance techniques for cancer therapeutics.  Dr. Ravi also has extensive expertise in the creation and quality assurance of novel patient-specific 3D printed applicators.    

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 Souhami received his medical degree from Escola de Medicina e Cirurgia in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1972. He subsequently undertook post-graduate training at State University of New York at Stony Brook, and completed his residency in internal medicine at Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland. Dr. Souhami completed his residency in radiation oncology at Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Ontario in 1979, and subsequently served as Visiting Fellow (Radiation Oncology) at M.D. Anderson Hospital and Cancer Institute, Houston, Texas.  After his residency in radiation oncology, he returned to his native country in Brazil and worked for seven years at the National Cancer Institute in Rio de Janeiro where he became chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology. In 1987 he moved to McGill University in Montreal and was the Associate Director of that department for 19 years. Currently is a Professor in the Department of Oncology, Division of Radiation Oncology.  Dr. Souhami has been an invited speaker at numerous congresses across North America and worldwide and has more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, several books chapters and two textbooks to his credit. He serves on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals and is a member of many professional organizations. Dr. Souhami’s current research interests include the combined use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in cancer, stereotactic radiosurgery, genito-urinary, gynecologic and central nervous system malignancies.

Dr Sripadam studied medicine in India before undertaking his specialist oncology training at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, Liverpool and Velindre Hospital in Cardiff. Prior to his appointment as consultant, Dr Sripadam was a Clinical Research Fellow at the Academic Department of Radiation Oncology at The Christie Hospital in Manchester where he pursued research in image guided radiotherapy and gained his Medical Doctorate from the University of Manchester. He joined The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre as a Clinical Oncologist in 2006. He practises chemotherapy and radiotherapy, including contact radiotherapy, stereotactic radiotherapy and brachytherapy, for Breast, Upper & Lower Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary cancers. He maintains an active interest in research and is the principal investigator for several national breast and gastrointestinal trials.  

Dr. Amandeep Taggar is originally from Vancouver and completed his medical school training at the University of British Columbia. He also did his Masters in Advanced Therapeutics and Oncology at the University of British Columbia. He completed his residency in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Tom Baker Cancer Center at the University Of Calgary, and his fellowship in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He currently is an Assistant Professor in Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto and a Clinician-Investigator at the Odette Cancer Centre/ Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He specializes in treating patients with gynecologic and Upper gastrointestinal malignancies and his practice involves MRI guided radiotherapy and brachytherapy/interstitial brachytherapy.

Dr. Vuong is the Director of the Segal Cancer Center’s Radiation Oncology department at the JGH since August 2009. She received her M.D and Internal medicine certification from the Université de Montréal and continued her postgraduate training in Medical Oncology and Radiation Oncology at the Princess Margaret Hospital, University of Toronto and the Institut Gustave Roussy & Institut Curie in Paris, Université de Paris, France. She is currently a Professor (GFT-U) at McGill University, Department of Oncology and holds the position of co-Chair, McGill Radiation Oncology at the same educational facility. Dr. Vuong is internationally recognized, particularly for her expertise in the treatment and research of rectal cancer and is currently focusing on research for high dose rate endorectal brachytherapy for patients with rectal cancer.  She was the first and unique Quebec radiation oncologist to be granted as a CHIR researcher for the development of targeted radiation for gastro-intestinal cancer and served as the NCIC co-chair of colo-rectal trials. Dr. Vuong conducts cutting-edge research in the area of colorectal cancer.  She has participated as either the Principal Investigator or co-participant in numerous studies throughout her career.  Her efforts have led to the development of new radiation technologies with the event of 3D simulation and modern radiation treatment technologies with multileaf collimators, IMRT, 3D image guided radiotherapy and brachytherapy and the development of clinical protocols for GI cancer. She is a world leader in the development of GI brachytherapy and has been co-chair four World conference on organ preservation for patients with rectal cancer. Her strengths are in her vision, integration of innovative technologies and a sound clinical experience and understanding of patient needs. She is working actively on the implementation of this new technology in Quebec for breast and intra abdominal tumors. She is a co-PI of Dr. Sylvain Martel’s magnetotactic bacteria nanorobotic research project as a means to improve treatment therapeutic for patients with cancer. This project is a major step in the future in the field of highly targeted radiation by allowing the delivery of targeted radio-sensitizers.  She believes this new treatment approach will open new doors to curative radiation with lower toxicities and avoidance of unnecessary surgery in the field of cancer. In addition to the intra-operative radiation modality, targeted radio-sensitizer loading in the tumor will define unforeseen treatment landmarks for cancer patients. The joint research project with Dr. Martel is expected to be a unique breakthrough for cancer patients and Canadian leadership in innovation and collaboration.   

Tim R. Williams, M.D., is the Medical Director of SFPTI and has practiced as a board-certified radiation oncologist in South Florida since 1989. Before moving to Florida area, he was Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at The Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University.  In addition to operating a full-time clinical practice, Dr. Williams is Past President of the American Society for Radiation Oncology; Past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists; and Past President of the Florida Radiological Society, and a recipient of the Society’s Gold Medal.  Dr. Williams is also a Past Member of the Council Steering Committee for the American College of Radiology and serves as Medical Director for the training program in radiation therapy technology at Broward College.  He is a founding member of the International Cancer Expert Corps (www.ICEC.org); member of the Advisory Board for Radiation Protection for the State of Florida Department of Health; Research Affiliate Professor in the Physics Department of Florida Atlantic University; member of the Board of Trustees for the Radiation Oncology Institute; and is a member of the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s Conflict of Interest Committee, HealthCare Policy Committee and International Education Subcommittee, and is liaison to the Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology as well as Vice-Chair of the Corporate Relations Committee.  Dr. Williams is a cum laude graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology (1978), received his M.D. degree from the Medical College of Georgia (1983), and took his residency at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida (1987).