The cornerstone of the program is the Head and Neck Oncology Tumor Board, which consists of 30 different specialists who meet weekly to review the cases of each new head and neck cancer patient before making any recommendations for treatment. The Tumor Board Dr Harari helped create laid the groundwork for new clinical and laboratory research initiatives related to head and neck cancer. Dr Harari's goal was to improve curative therapy for patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck. Now an Associate Professor of Human Oncology at the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center and Medical School, Dr Harari has spent the past 7 years continuing to research the use of anti-proliferative drugs combined with radiation therapy for head and neck cancers. The RSNA News recently had an opportunity to speak with Dr Harari about his work as an RSNA Scholar, the research he has done since then, and his promising findings.
Radiation oncology is the treatment of cancer patients with radiation.
I became interested in cancer while I was an intern in internal medicine at the University of California-Davis. So I thought about going into medical oncology, which is the use of chemotherapy, and I even thought about surgical oncology, but I found myself most attracted to radiation oncology. I think it was that radiation was known to be very effective in curing certain tumors. In many ways, it's more effective than many of the chemotherapy drugs. Also, I could see that physicians in this field had a real academic life as well.