2018 Radiation Oncology Research Retreat
Friday, November 16th at the Riverview Terrace of the
Vivian and Seymour Milstein Heart Center, NY Presbyterian Hospital
The 4th annual radiation oncology research retreat began with opening remarks by Dr. Tom K. Hei, professor and vice chair, who stated that the main goal of the annual event was to promote cross talk among our clinicians and basic scientists in the Department, the Center for Radiological Research and the Columbia University Irving Medical Center as a whole. Through a well-mentored academic research program, the Department strives to train not only the best doctors but future leaders in the radiation oncology community. Dr. Lawrence Schwartz, interim chair of radiation oncology and chair of radiology, then introduced the new senior vice-president and chief operating officer of New York Presbyterian at Columbia Irving Medical Center, Dr. Laureen Hill who updated the audience on the future plans and the current new chair search or the department. The main scientific session began with a terrific keynote lecture on the molecular mechanism of prostate cancer by Dr. Cory Abate-Shen, who set the stage for the four interdisciplinary sessions to follow.
The retreat this year featured two invited speakers from outside departments, including Dr. Wei Gu of the Institute of Cancer Genetics who presented his excellent work on the role of p53 in ferroptosis. In addition, Dr. Bin-Sheng Zhao from the Department of Radiology gave an overview on computational image analysis. The four scientific sessions covered multidisciplinary research themes on brain, prostate and breast cancer, as well on biodosimetry and dose verification studies. The day-long event finished with a poster session complemented with cheese and crackers. A panel of 5 judges identified the two best posters and the authors received a Dinner for Two Coupon courtesy of Dr. Tom Hei. Overall, the 2018 Radiation Oncology Research Retreat was a highly successful event.
