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ASTRO names three gold medal recipients
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The American Society for Radiation Oncology announced the recipients of the society’s gold medal, the highest honor bestowed upon society members.
The gold medal recognizes individuals who have made outstanding lifetime contributions in the field of radiation oncology, including achievements in clinical patient care, research, teaching and service to the profession.
The recipients are:
- Benedick A. Fraass, PhD, FASTRO, vice chair for research and director of medical physics in the department of radiation oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. His accomplishments include developing 3-D treatment planning for routine clinical use, validating advanced uses of computer-controlled radiotherapy, and optimizing planning and delivery systems that allow more conformal and dose-escalated radiation doses while reducing the impact on nearby healthy tissue.
- Christopher G. Willett, MD, FASTRO, chair and professor of radiation oncology at Duke University Medical Center. Willett, who served as chair of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Gastrointestinal Cancer Committee, pioneered intraoperative radiation therapy to treat rectal and pancreatic cancers. He also demonstrated the potential of radiation therapy combined with anti-angiogenic therapy to treat several cancer types.
- Anthony L. Zietman, MD, FASTRO, is professor of radiation oncology and director of the radiation oncology residency program at Harvard Medical School. He also is a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. Zietman has led multiple clinical trials designed to assess the efficacy of therapies for genitourinary cancers, including the use of androgen deprivation or radiation dose escalation for localized prostate cancer and chemo-radiation in bladder cancer. He also has helped write national guidelines for prostate cancer and bladder cancer treatments.
Christopher G. Willett
Anthony L. Zietman
“Drs. Fraass, Willett and Zietman — both as a cohort and as individual trailblazers in the field — represent the highest echelon of cutting-edge oncology research, of success training future generations of radiation oncologists and medical physicists, and of devoted and impactful service to their colleagues and patients,” ASTRO Chair Bruce D. Minsky, MD, FASTRO, said in a press release.