Stephen T. Lutz: Palliative Radiotherapy, a growing subspecialty

Dr. Stephen Lutz (Figure 1) is a physician at the Armes Cancer Center in Findlay, Ohio, who is board certified in Radiation Oncology as well as Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He practices full time as a Radiation Oncologist, while he has published extensively about end-of-life oncology care. In October of 2014, Dr. Lutz and Professor Edward Chow began co-authoring a regular column entitled “Palliative Radiotherapy” for Annals of Palliative Medicine (APM). Owing to his contributions to the field, the editor of APM seized the opportunity to interview Dr. Lutz after the 2014 meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) which was held in San Francisco, California. The interview delves into Dr. Lutz’ personal experiences in getting involved with palliative radiotherapy as well as his opinions regarding the potential benefits to patient care by more closely aligning the radiotherapy and palliative care specialties. At the end of the interview Dr. Lutz also shares the history of the International Consensus Conference on Palliative Radiotherapy and the formation of the new Society for Palliative Radiation Oncology (SPRO).