Paul Harari begins presidency of radiation oncology society

Harari is the Jack Fowler Professor and chair of the Department of Human Oncology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He treats patients with head and neck cancer, and his research focuses on new radiation treatment techniques and novel radiation-drug combinations to improve outcomes for patients.

Harari served for eight years as an associate director of the UW Carbone Cancer Center and directs the first National Institutes of Health Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant earned in the state of Wisconsin.

Harari’s plans as president-elect include enhancing public awareness of the specialty. For more on this, see a question-and-answer with the new ASTRO president.

ASTRO has more than 10,500 members who are physicians, nurses, physicists, radiation therapists, dosimetrists and other health care professionals who use radiation therapies to treat patients with cancer. Seventeen UW Carbone researchers will present at the conference, including:

• Dr. Zachary Morris, who will give three talks on the exciting new field of using radiation and immunology in combination to treat cancer, one of which focuses specifically on head and neck cancer
• Dr. Randy Kimple, who is leading a session on translating lab findings into clinical trials for patients, and is giving a second talk on immune response with Morris
• Dr. John Bayouth, who will talk about using newer imaging techniques to spare healthy tissue while treating lung cancer
• Dr. Kristin Bradley, who is moderating a session on the latest research on cervical cancer treatments
• Dr. Craig Hullet, who is leading a question-and-answer session on treatment outcomes in cervical cancer