Radiation Oncology

I am now in a leadership role where my time is half administration and half clinical practice. The latter allows me to still test medical hypotheses through clinical research and to still see patients most days of the week, which I love. I got into oncology because of the connection with patients and would hate to lose that.

What I like about being in a leadership role is that I can...

After my discovery of a passion for oncology, I discovered a second passion for a specific type of radiation treatment called brachytherapy (pronounced brak-e-therapy). The most common type of brachytherapy, low-dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy, involves the implantation of microscopic radiation sources or “seeds” directly into or around a tumour. This means that a patient does not have to come...

Not only did I find my career focus in Edmonton, but while training I met my wife. Her family is from the Okanagan and we’re both outdoor enthusiasts, so we always had Kelowna in mind as somewhere we wanted to live.

By 2003, an opportunity surfaced and I joined the BC Cancer Agency’s team in Kelowna at the Centre for the Southern Interior. I’ve been here ever since. I now have three...

I am pleased to introduce our first 2011 spring blogger from the BC Cancer Agency’s Centre for the Southern Interior in Kelowna. Dr. Ross Halperin is the Regional Professional Practice Leader for the radiation oncology department at the Centre. Because of the dedication of Ross and his colleagues at the BC Cancer Agency, the translation from research discovery to improved clinical practice...

So, what is a medical oncologist? Well, cancers are primarily treated by one of or a combination of surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. A medical oncologist is a specialist physician who directs and manages the course of chemotherapy that can be used to treat a cancer. Chemotherapy is a general term used to describe medicines that have the ability to kill cancer cells. There are over one...

I wanted to start by speaking a bit about the Clinical Trials Unit at the Abbotsford Centre.

  “Clinical trials” is a term that encompasses a lot of different research questions and goals. 

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has a definition (here it is), but for ease, I think of...

Another part of my work is to lead an active research group on “Functional Cancer Imaging.” The purpose of my research is to improve and develop new methods to detect and characterize cancers by using tumor-seeking probes instead of simply looking for tumour masses using conventional means.

Part of this includes evaluating which patients gain the most benefit from...

I’m excited because yesterday we officially celebrated the opening of the cyclotron and the radiopharmaceutical facility at the BC Cancer Agency’s Centre of Excellence for Functional Cancer Imaging.

It’s an impressive space (6,000 square feet), and at its core is the cyclotron I mentioned in my previous post.

This facility is important because we can now produce our own...