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Featured Speakers 2008

CARO Lecturer: Dr. Peggy Olive Predicting Response to radiation - tumours or normal tissues? Peggy Olive performed graduate work on radiation sensitizers at Western and McMaster. After post-doctorate studies at the University of Wisconsin, she and her husband Ralph Durand founded the radiobiology department at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center. They moved to Vancouver in 1983 where she now heads Medical Biophysics at the BCCA. She is currently President of the International Association for Radiation Research and the 2008 John Yuhas award winner. Her research has focused on the development of predictive assays for radiation response, including methods for detecting DNA damage and tumor hypoxia.
Gordon Richards Lecturer: Dr. Juanita Crook Prostate Cancer - a paradigm for progress in radiation oncology Dr Crook is a Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto/University Health Network and currently is the Head of the Prostate Brachytherapy Program at Princess Margaret Hospital where she has performed over 980 prostate implants. Following graduation from the University of Toronto Medical School and completion of the Radiation Oncology Residency at Princess Margaret Hospital, she completed a one-year brachytherapy fellowship in Dijon and Paris. She spent the next decade practicing in Ottawa, where she developed expertise in GenitoUrinary malignancies, with particular interest in advanced radiation techniques for prostate cancer. In 1998 she moved to Toronto to develop the Princess Margaret Hospital prostate brachytherapy program. She has written 14 book chapters, over 100 journal articles and is a frequent speaker at international meetings, in both French and English.
Invited Speaker - Canadian Brachytherapy Group: Dr. Robert Kuske Title: TBA Dr. Kuske received his MD from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in 1980, where he also did his residency serving as Chief Resident from 1983 to 1984. He is considered a national authority on the radio therapeutic management of breast cancer and has published numerous articles. He was selected by his peers as one of the best breast cancer specialists in the US, which was featured in Good Housekeeping magazine in 1992 and 1998. Dr. Kuske currently practices at the Arizona Oncology Services - Scottsdale Center. In 2004, he was appointed as a Clinical Professor at The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Phoenix Campus. Dr. Kuske is Board Certified in Therapeutic Radiology by the American Board of Radiology.
Keynote Speaker at Translational Research Symposium: Dr. Bo Lu Molecular-targeted Agents and Radiotherapy Bo Lu performed graduate work on skin biology and gene regulation at Baylor College of Medicine. After residency training at the University of Southern California, he moved to Nashville in 2002 where he is currently the Ingram Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology and Cancer Biology at Vanderbilt University. His research has focused on targeting cell death pathways for radiosensitization.
Keynote Speaker at Translational Research Symposium: Dr. Andrew Minchinton The Tumour Microenvironment - Imaging Drug Distribution and Treatment Effects Andrew Minchinton, a senior scientist at the BC Cancer Research Centre in Vancouver, has been interested in the tumour microenvironment since a graduate student at the Gray Laboratory in the UK. He moved to Vancouver from Stanford University in 1993 and has used and developed in vivo and in vitro models to interrogate the role the tumour microenvironment plays in radiation and chemotherapy. Involvement in drug development programs for radiation sensitizers and hypoxic cytotoxins led to an interest in the role the extravascular compartment plays in the distribution of anticancer drugs and the consequence of this on drug activity. Current projects include work on the microregional mechanisms of action and resistance of anticancer drugs, the continued development of tools to examine the cellular activity of anticancer treatment in both in vitro and in vivo models and the development of novel drugs to complement radiation therapy.