Faculty
We are delighted to confirm the following international faculty for the 2023 SABR Symposium.
Anna Bruynzeel
Dr. Anna Bruynzeel is originally from Middelburg, the nicest town near the south-west coast of The Netherlands. She earned her medical degree (2000, cum laude) at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. From 2001-2006 she worked as a resident in Internal Medicine (Spaarne Hospital, Haarlem), followed by a residency in Medical Oncology at the VU University Medical Center Amsterdam. Anna defended her PhD thesis ‘Clinical and preclinical aspects of monoHER in combination with Doxorubicine’ in 2007, thereafter, completing her residency training in Radiation Oncology at the VU University Medical Center. She was appointed as a staff member in 2012. In addition to a special interest in Neuro-Oncology and intracranial radiosurgery, Anna has been a core member of the clinical team setting up the MR-guided adaptive radiotherapy program at the Amsterdam University Medical Center since 2015. Anna currently serves as the clinical lead for adaptive MR-guided radiotherapy at the Amsterdam UMC, having set up the clinical program for prostate-, renal- and pancreatic cancer. At the end of 2022, well over 1500 patients had been treated with MR-guided radiotherapy at Amsterdam UMC, including nearly 150 patients with (recurrent) renal cancer. Anna also oversees several multicentre pancreatic cancer studies and supervises PhD students.
Laura Dawson
Laura Dawson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto, and a practicing radiation oncologist at the Radiation Medicine Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, in Toronto. She is an internationally recognized leader in hepatobiliary cancer and in oligo-metastases. Her research has primarily focused on implementation of advanced radiation technologies (e.g. stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and image guided radiation therapy (IGRT)) to improve outcomes and to reduce the risk of toxicity of cancer patients. She has led phase I, II and more recently, phase III clinical trials of radiation therapy to treat patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and liver metastases. Dr. Dawson has published over 200 scientific papers and has mentored over 50 students from around the world. She has received numerous awards for her teaching, research and impact in oncology. She was the 2018 Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology (CARO) Gordon Richards lecturer, and she is the past Chair and past President of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
Jimm Grimm
Dr. Jimm Grimm, PhD, is a clinical physicist who analyzes radiation dose response. He has commissioned several CyberKnife systems and provided physics support for thousands of SABR cases. Dr. Grimm designed the DVH Evaluator, an FDA-cleared software tool that aids with comparing radiation therapy treatment plans to applicable dose tolerance limits, and for recording follow-up patient response and symptoms. The software has been used in the statistical tumor control probability (TCP) and normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) dose response modeling of data from more than 30,000 SBRT cases for several published clinical datasets including the full April 2016 issue of Seminars in Radiation Oncology on NTCP for SABR, as well as the May 2021 Special Issue of the Red Journal on HyTEC: High Dose per Fraction, Hypofractionated Treatment Effects in the Clinic. Dr. Grimm is very appreciative of the more than 100 experts and authors who made these works possible.
Piet Ost
Piet Ost is an associate professor at Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium and radiation oncologist at the Iridium Network, Antwerp, Belgium. He is an expert in the treatment of genitourinary malignancies with a focus on prostate and bladder cancers. His research focuses on the implementation of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), oligometastases and drug-radiotherapy trials. Dr. Ost has led numerous clinical trials exploring the potential benefit of SBRT for oligometastases and radioimmunotherapy. He serves as a reviewer for several grant organizations and journals. He is a co-author of the ESMO clinical prostate cancer practice guidelines and the 2-yearly Advanced Prostate Cancer Consensus Conference. Dr. Ost is the chair of the Radiation Oncology Scientific Council of the EORTC.
Dr Ost received his M.D. degree at Ghent University in 2006, his PhD in 2011 and completed his radiation oncology training in 2012 at the same university.
David Palma
Dr. David Palma, MD, PhD is a Professor and Radiation Oncologist at Western University in London, Canada. He holds an MD from the University of Western Ontario, a Master’s Degree in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a PhD from the VU University in Amsterdam. He has led several international randomized trials in radiation oncology, and he is the chair of the Canadian Pulmonary Radiotherapy Investigators (CAPRI) group. He is the author of the bestselling book Taking Charge of Cancer: What You Need to Know to Get the Best Treatment.