Introduction
The Department of Radiation Oncology provides state-of-the-art radiation oncology training to five physicians between the PGY 2-5 years in the Residency Training Program at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.  The Residency Training Program is fully accredited by the ACGME.  Located in Cleveland, Ohio, the UH Department of Radiation of Oncology is affiliated with the CASE Comprehensive Cancer Center, an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Case Western Reserve University.

University Hospitals is a 947-bed tertiary referral center and the primary teaching site for our residents.  Our main teaching campus is located within University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center. Other teaching sites include the Wade Park Veterans Administration hospital and the UH Chagrin Highlands Health Center, a community-based radiation treatment facility.  Our department also includes radiation treatment facilities at Southwest General Medical Center, Lorain Community Health Partners, Lake / UH Seidman Cancer Center, and the UH Westlake Health Center. 

Internship
The Department of Radiation Oncology does not directly sponsor an internship year at University Hospitals of Cleveland.  The Residency Program accepts completed medical, surgical, or transitional year internships from accredited programs prior to enrollment in the Radiation Oncology Residency Training Program.  Please see the Frequently Asked Questions section for more information.

Conference, Lecture, and Educational Opportunities

  • Residents present two teaching conferences per week staffed by clinical faculty.  These case presentations include discussions of disease work up and management.  Faculty provides critical discussion and insight into treatment management strategies during these sessions. 
  • At weekly new patient conference and chart/film review, residents present new cases and discuss treatment rationales.
  • Residents attend and participate in weekly specialty tumor boards to discuss multidisciplinary approaches to patient care.
  • Residents participate in a weekly one-hour medical radiation physics course from August to March of each training year.
  • Residents participate in a weekly one-hour radiobiology course from September to March of each training year.

 

Clinical Program and Rotations

  • Residents have 36 months of clinical oncology divided into 3-month clinical rotations, distributed among the various clinical disciplines (Breast & Gynecologic Oncology; Prostate/Neuro-Oncology; Pediatrics/Gastrointestinal; Lymphoma; Head & Neck/Lung; Elective Clinical Oncology)
  • The PGY-4 year includes rotations in pathology, radiology, nuclear medicine, and dosimetry
  • Residents have a 6-month rotation in clinical or laboratory research during the PGY-4 or PGY-5 years.
  • Our department is a tertiary referral center for pediatric oncology patients through University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital. Residents have the opportunity to participate directly in the care of pediatric oncology patients during residency.

Clinical Research and National Meeting Attendance

  • Residents may participate as interested in a wide variety of clinical research activities. On-going research includes clinical and laboratory development of radiosensitizers, clinical use of radioprotectors (such as amifostine), image-guided radiotherapy,  photodynamic therapy, and clinical projects in neuro-oncology, breast cancer, and gynecologic oncology.
  • Residents are given a travel stipend for academic meetings of their choice (with approval by the Residency Program Director):  PGY-2 $1,000; PGY-3 to PGY-4 $1,400 (up to $2,000 for resident presentations at one or more peer-reviewed national meetings).
  • Recent publications from the Department of Radiation Oncology are listed below:
    • Araki S, Israel S, Leskov KS, Criswell TL, Beman M, Klokov DY, Sampalth L, Reinicke KE, Cataldo E, Mayo LD, Boothman DA. Clusterin proteins: stress-inducible polypeptides with proposed functions in multiple organ dysfunction. BJR Suppl. 2005;27:106-13.
    • Bouchet LG, Bolch WE, Blanco HP, Wessels BW, Siegel JA, Rajon DA, Clairand I, Sgouros G, MIRD Pamphlet No 19: Absorbed fractions and radionuclide S values for six age-dependent multiregion models of the kidney.  J Nucl Med 2003; 44: 1113-47.
    • Breitz H, Wendt R, Stabin M, Bouchet L, Wessels B.  Dosimetry of High Dose Skeletal Targeted Radiotherapy (STR) with 166Ho-DOTMP.  Cancer biotherapy and Radiopharmaceuticals 2003, 18, 2.
    • Chvetsov A, Sandison GA, Angular correction in reconstruction of electron spectra from depth dose distributions.  Med Phys. 2003 Aug;30(8):2155-8.
    • Chvetsov AV, Calvetti D, Sohn JW, Kinsella TJ.  Regularization of inverse planning for intensity-modulated radiotherapy,  Medical Physics 32 (2):501-514, 2005.
    • Criswell T, Beman M, Araki S, Leskov K, Cataldo E, Mayo LD, Boothman DA.  Delayed activation of insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor/Src/MAPK/Egr-1 signaling regulates clusterin expression, a pro-survival factor. J Biol Chem. 2005 Apr 8;280(14):14212-21.
    • Ellis RJ, Vertocnik A, Kim E, Zhou H, Young B, Sodee B, Fu P, Beddar S, Colussi V, Spirnak JP, Dinchman KH, Resnick M, Kinsella TJ.  Four-year biochemical outcome after radioimmunoguided transperineal brachytherapy for patients with prostate adenocarcinoma.  Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2003, 57, 2, 362-70.
    • Huq MS, Sohn JW.  Over the forseeable future, the growth in technical complexity of radiation therapy will continue to drive the demand for more medical physicists.  Med Phys. 2004 Nov;31(11):2939-40.
    • Kunos CA, Resnick M, Kinsella T, Ellis RJ.  Seed migration of implanted radioactive seeds for adenocarcinoma of the prostate using a MICK applicator. Brachytherapy 3:71-77, 2004.
    • Kunos C., Colussi V., Getty P., Kinsella T.J.  Intraoperative radiotherapy sequelae and prognostic factors for extremity sarcomas.  Clinical Orthopedics and Related Research (in press), 2005.
    • Kunos C., Latson M.S., Overmoyer B., Silverman P., Shenk R., Kinsella T.J., Lyons J.  Breast conservation surgery achieving ( 2mm tumor-free margins results in decreased loco-regional recurrence rates. The Breast Journal (in press), 2005.
    • Mayo LD, Seo YR, Jackson MW, Smith ML, Rivera Guzman J, Korgaonkar CK, Donner DB.  Phosphorylation of human p53 at serine 46 determines promoter selection and whether apoptosis is attenuated or amplified. J Biol Chem. 2005 Jul 15;280(28):25953-9.
    • Patel SJ, Shapiro WR, Laske DW, Jensen RL, Asher AL, Wessels BW, Carpenter SP, Shan JS,  Safety and feasibility of convection-enhanced delivery of Cotara for the treatment of malignant glioma: initial experience in 51 patients., Neurosurgery. 2005 Jun;56(6):1243-52; discussion 1252-3.
    • Radivoyevitch T, Schupp JE, Taverna P, Kinsella TJ.  The linear-quadratic log-survival radiation dose response model:  Confidence ellipses, drug-drug interactions and brachytherapeutic gains.  Medical Hypotheses and Research 1:23-28, 2004.
    • Schultz CA, Mehta MP, McGinn CJ, Robins HA, Badie B, Volkman J, Binger D, Alberti D, Feierbend C, Tutsch KD, Wilding G, Kinsella TJ.  Continuous 28 day iododeoxyuridine (IUdR) infusion and hyperfractionated accelerated radiotherapy (HART) for malignant glioma:  A phase I clinical study.  Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 59:1107-1115, 2004.
    • Seo Y, Yan T, Schupp JE, Colussi V, Taylor KL, Kinsella TJ.  Differential radiosensitization in DNA mismatch repair proficient and deficient human colon cancer xenografts with 5-iodo-2-pyrimidinone-2'-deoxyribose. Clin Cancer Res 10:7520-7528, 2004.
    • Seo Y, Yan T, Schupp JE, Kinsella TJ.  Schedule-dependent drug effects of oral 5-iodo-2-pyrimidinone-2'-deoxyribose as an in vivo radiosensitizer in U251 human glioblastoma xenografts.  Clin Cancer Res (in press), 2005.
    • Talamonti MS, Small W Jr, Mulcahy MF, Wayne JD, Attaluri V, Colletti LM, Zacupski MM, Hoffman JP, Freedman GM, Kinsella TJ, Philip PA, McGinn CJ.  A multi-institutional phase II trial of preoperative full dose gemcitabine and concurrent radiation for patients with potentially resectable pancreatic cancer.  J Surg Oncology (in press), 2005.
    • Wessels B, Summary and Perspectives on Kidney Dose-Response to Radionuclide Therapy, Cancer Biotherapy & Radiopharmaceuticals, 19(3): 388-90, 2004
    • Wessels BW, Bolch WE, Bouchet LG, Breitz HB, Denardo GL, Meredith RF, Stabin MG, Sgouros G; American Association of Physicists in Medicine, Bone marrow dosimetry using blood-based models for radiolabeled antibody therapy: a multiinstitutional comparison., J Nucl MedOct;45(10):1725-33, 2004.
    • Wu QJ, Jitprapaikulsarn S, Mathayomcham B, Einstein D, Maciunas RJ, Pillai K, Wessels BW, Kinsella TJ, Chankong V.  Clinical evaluation of a gamma knife inverse planning system.  Radiosurgery 5:260-266, 2004.
    • Wu QJ, Chankong V, Jitprapaikulsarn S, Mathayomchan B, Kinsella TJ, Real-time inverse planning for Gamma Knife radiosurgery.  Med Phys. 2003 Nov;30(11):2988-95
    • Wu QJ, Wessels BW, Einsein DB, Maciunas RJ, Kim EY, Kinsella TJ.  Quality of coverage: conformity measures for stereotactic radiosurgery.  J Appl Clin Med Phys. 2003 Autumn;4(4):374-81.
    • Xing Lei, Wessels BW.  The value of PET/CT is being over-sold as a clinical tool in radiation oncology.  Med Phys. 2005 Jun;32(6):1457-8
    • Yamane K, Yan T, Taylor K, Kinsella TJ.  Mismatch repair-mediated G2/M arrest by 6-thioguanine involves the ATR-Chk1 pathway.  Biochem Biophys Res Comm 318:297-302, 2004.
    • Yamane K, Kinsella TJ. Casein kinase 2 regulates both apoptosis and the cell cycle following DNA damage induced by 6-thioguanine.  Clin Cancer Res 11:2355-2363, 2005.
    • Yamane K, Kinsella TJ.  CK2 inhibits apoptosis and changes its cellular localization following ionizing radiation.  Cancer Res 65:4362-4367, 2005.
    • Yan T, Desai AB, Jacobberger JW, Sramroski RM, Loh T, Kinsella TJ.  CHK1 and CHK2 are differentially involved in mismatch repair-mediated 6-thioguanine-induced cell cycle checkpoint responses.  Mol Cancer Ther  9:1147-1157, 2004.
    • Zhang P, Wu J, Dean D, Xing L, Xue J, Maciunas R, Sibata C, Plug pattern optimization for gamma knife radiosurgery treatment planning.  Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2003, 55, 2, 420-7.

Benefits and Responsibilities

  • Current salary for PGY-2 residents $41,998 (as of July 1, 2006)
  • 20 days vacation per year
    Book fund: $500 to purchase an initial set of textbooks, $350 per year thereafter
  • Home call 1 week/month-includes 1 to 2 holiday calls annually.
  • Residents have full access to Case Western Reserve University libraries and athletic facilities.
  • The UH Graduate Medical Education Office also lists hospital-wide benefits and responsibilities.