This special series on “Radiotherapy for Oncologic Emergencies” is edited by Drs. J. Isabella Choi, Stephanie K. Schaub, Simon S. Lo and Dr. Charles B. Simone. This special series will provide an overview of the use of radiotherapy in urgent or emergent oncologic conditions.

J. Isabelle Choi, MD
Faculty of Medicine and Health, Brain and Mind Centre, Central Clinical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Dr. Isabelle Choi is the Clinical Director and Director of Research at the New York Proton Center and lead of the Breast Cancer and Gastrointestinal Cancer Services at NYPC. Her research focus is in improving outcomes, reducing toxicities, and improving radiotherapy treatment delivery for breast, gastrointestinal, and thoracic malignancies. She is also an Assistant Member of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she is a member of the breast service. Before coming to NYPC, Dr. Choi was appointed the Clinical Director at the California Protons Cancer Therapy Center in San Diego, California, where she also served as the Associate Director of Clinical Research and the Chief of the Breast Cancer, Thoracic Oncology, and Gynecologic Services for the center. She was then appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and served as a clinical lead of the Maryland Proton Treatment Center.  Dr. Choi completed her undergraduate degree at Harvard University and her medical school degree at the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine. She completed her internship in internal medicine and her residency training in radiation oncology at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, where she served as chief resident. Among her select national leadership appointments, Dr. Choi is Chair of the Physician Advisory Committee of the National Association for Proton Therapy, Chair of the Proton Collaborative Group (PCG) Breast Committee, Chair of the PCG Publications Committee, and President of the Korean American Society of Radiation Oncology.

Stephanie K. Schaub, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Washington School of Medicine

Dr. Stephanie Schaub is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA), Seattle Children's Hospital, and the SCCA Proton Center. Dr. Schaub has expertise in the treatment of pediatric cancers, adult sarcomas, and spine tumors. Her research interests involve the identification of novel imaging and non-invasive biomarkers that can help personalize our therapeutic approach. She is also passionate about equity, value-based care, and how to best serve the whole patient across all spectrums of their cancer from curative to palliative treatment. Radiotherapy can be often an underutilized resource in palliative care, particularly in the pediatric setting despite its it's efficacy, and Dr. Schaub is a champion to support the integration of this further into practice when appropriate.

Simon S. Lo, MB, ChB, FACR, FASTRO
Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA

Dr. Simon S. Lo is Professor and Vice Chair for Strategic Planning of Radiation Oncology, Professor of Neurological Surgery and Director of Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy, and the Co-Chair of the Appointment and Promotion Committee at University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, WA. Dr. Lo is currently the chair of the American College of Radiology-American Radium Society Appropriateness Use Committee in Bone Metastasis and the radiation oncology track co-chair for RSNA refresher course, and is an expert in brain and spinal tumors, stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). He is also the Immediate Past President and Fellowship Committee Chair for CARROS and an Assistant Councilor (on behalf of American Radium Society) of American College of Radiology (ACR). Dr. Lo is also a member of the Board of Directors and the Medical Director of the Distinction in Practice in SRS/ SBRT of Radiosurgery Society. In 2019, he has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Society for Palliative Radiation Oncology.

He has published 240 peer-reviewed papers, over 50 book chapters and 8 textbooks, including a comprehensive textbook in SBRT (>50,000 downloads), in addition to an adult CNS radiation oncology textbook (>50,000 downloads). He has given lectures on SBRT in American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), Radiosurgery Society (RSS), ESTRO, International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society (ISRS), and American Thoracic Society (ATS) conferences and at multiple US and international academic centers. He is on the editorial boards of multiple oncology journals including Neurosurgery and Advances in Radiation Oncology and also a reviewer for Lancet, Lancet Oncol, Nature Reviews Clinical Oncol, JCO, Radiotherapy & Oncol, and IJROBP.

His areas of research are in palliative radiation oncology, CNS tumors, stereotactic radiosurgery, radiobiological modeling for ablative radiotherapy, SBRT for lung, liver and spinal tumors, and toxicities associated with SBRT. He is a Fellow of American College of Radiology and American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

Charles B. Simone, II, MD, FACRO
New York Proton Center, New York, NY, USA; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

Charles B. Simone, II, MD, FACRO is a Research Professor and the Chief Medical Officer of the New York Proton Center and a Full Member in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is an internationally recognized expert in the use of proton therapy to treat thoracic malignancies and for reirradiation, and in the development of clinical trial strategies and innovative research in thoracic radiation oncology and stereotactic body radiation therapy. He is a National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and Department of Defense funded investigator who performs clinical and translational research investigating the benefits of proton therapy as part of multi-modality therapy for lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, and other thoracic malignancies.

Prior to coming to NYPC, Dr. Simone was Chief of the Thoracic Oncology Service at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Penn Mesothelioma and Pleural Program, and Director of Clinical Research and Operations in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Penn. He was then appointed Medical Director of the Maryland Proton Treatment Center, and at the University of Maryland, he also served as Chair of the Clinical Research Committee for their Comprehensive Cancer Center, proton therapy Fellowship Director, and Director of the Stereotactic Radiation Therapy Program. He completed his undergraduate and medical school training at the University of Pennsylvania, internship in internal medicine, and residency training in radiation oncology at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, where he served as chief resident.

Dr. Simone has published >320 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters, given >200 scientific lectures to national and international audiences, and is the national Principal Investigator or Co-Chair of 7 NIH-funded cooperative group trials (4 NRG Oncology, 1 SWOG, 1 ECOG-ACRIN, 1 PCG). He is a three-time winner of the Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology (ARRO) Educator of the Year Award.  Dr. Simone Chairs or Co-Chairs the Proton Collaborative Group (PCG) Executive Committee; PCG Lung Committee; American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Lung Resource Panel Committee; ASTRO Small Cell Lung Cancer Guidelines Committee; American Radium Society-American College of Radiology (ARS-ACR) Appropriate Use Criteria Thoracic Committee; Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group (PTCOG) Gastrointestinal Subcommittee; PTCOG Skull Base/Central Nervous System, Sarcoma Subcommittee; American College of Radiation Oncology (ACRO) Recruitment Subcommittee; ACRO Annual Meeting Abstracts Committee; and National Cancer Institute/Radiosurgery Society (RSS) GRID-Lattice-Microbeam-Flash Radiotherapy Clinical Working Group. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Palliative Medicine and on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Clinical Oncology, Journal of Thoracic Disease, Frontiers in Oncology, Translational Lung Cancer Research, Annals of Translational Medicine, Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, and Shanghai Chest.

Series outline:

1. The current landscape of oncologic emergencies
2. Emergent radiotherapy for malignant SVCO
3. Emergent radiotherapy for malignant bronchial obstruction and hemoptysis
4. Emergent radiotherapy for spinal cord compression/ impingement
5. Emergent radiotherapy for pediatric cancer
6. Emergent radiotherapy for brain mets and LM mets
7. Emergent radiotherapy for hematologic malignancies
8. Emergent radiotherapy for pelvic malignancies
9. Emergent radiotherapy for malignant dysphagia/ GI obstruction
10. Emergent radiotherapy for painful bone metastases
11. Emergent radiotherapy for hepatobiliary tumors
12. Emergent radiotherapy for head and neck tumors
13. Patient values and spiritual assessment in the setting of a radiation oncology emergency