Date/Time
Date(s) - 09/05/2024
1:55 pm - 2:55 pm
Location
Rhines 125
Categories
Abstract
In 2018, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) established an Expert Group to undertake a review of second primary cancers (SPCs) following radiotherapy. Ionizing radiation is one of many techniques in the treatment and potential eradication of cancer, with approximately 50% of all cancer patients receiving some form of radiotherapy. Most importantly, it is estimated that radiation contributes roughly 40% to the overall curative treatment of cancer.
As with nearly all forms of therapeutic medicine, there are adverse effects of treatment. For radiotherapy, these fall within two broad categories – normal organ toxicities (radiation tissue reactions) and the induction of a second primary cancer (stochastic radiation effect).
In this presentation, we’ll review the major conclusions of the report in the areas of oncology, radiobiology, dosimetry, and epidemiology. The Committee’s findings indicate that between 5% and 15% of cancer survivors may develop a second primary cancer. However, the Committee considered that only a small proportion of the total second primary cancers are likely to be attributable to radiotherapy. Consequently, cancer patients should not be dissuaded from undergoing radiotherapy solely based on concerns regarding the possible development of a second primary cancer.
Bio
Wesley Bolch, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics
University of Florida
Dr. Wesley Bolch is a Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida (UF). He serves as Director of ALRADS – the Advanced Laboratory for Radiation Dosimetry Studies at UF. Dr. Bolch earned his ME and PhD degrees in radiological physics in 1986 and 1998, respectively, from the University of Florida.
In 2011, Dr. Bolch was elected Fellow of both the Health Physics Society (HPS) and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM). In 2020, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He has been a member of the Society of Nuclear Medicine’s Medical Internal Radiation Dose (MIRD) Committee since 1993, a member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) since 2005 and served on Committee 2 of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) from 2005 to 2011.
He has served as a member of the US delegation of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) since 2015. He has published over 270 peer-reviewed journal articles, co-authored/edited 25 books/book chapters, and served as an author on two AAPM reports, three NCRP Reports, ten ICRP Publications, one ICRU Report, and three MIRD Monographs.