Webinar: Using “Spacers” for Safer Delivery of High Dose Radiation Therapy
Webinar: Using “Spacers” for Safer Delivery of High Dose Radiation Therapy
High dose radiation therapy is effective in the treatment of liver tumors. However, the greatest limitation in the use of radiation is not the liver itself, but rather adjacent organs like the stomach or intestines, which do not tolerate high doses of radiation therapy.
The use of laparoscopically-placed spacers can safely provide critical distance between a liver tumor and these sensitive organs and allow for therapeutic treatment of liver tumors, expanding the number of patients who can be offered potentially curative high dose radiation therapy.
Dr. Theodore Hong is the Director of Gastrointestinal Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School. He graduated from Harvard College and University of Connecticut School of Medicine and completed his residency in radiation oncology at the University of Wisconsin.
His research interests include proton therapy, targeted therapies, and biomarker development for GI cancers, with a specific interest in liver tumors. He serves on the NCI task force for hepatobiliary cancer and colon cancer, as well as numerous other national organizations. He is the Principal Investigator of NRG GI-001, the first phase III trial specific to intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma performed by the United States cooperative group system. He also is the Radiation co-chair of RTOG 1112, the phase III study of sorafenib +/- radiation in hepatocellular carcinoma.