Radiation Medicine
Keith Unger, MD, Acting Chair
The Department of Radiation Medicine offers students an overview of oncology, including the role of radiation therapy in cancer management and radiation research. To present information useful to the student’s comprehensive training, the department emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach, employing radiation therapy, surgery, and medical oncology in effective cancer management.
Clinical electives in radiation medicine meet the needs of individual students in clinical or research areas and are arranged through the preceptor. Students learn the role of radiation therapy in the treatment of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, breast cancer, prostate cancer and other solid adult and pediatric tumors.
Students may choose electives in clinical aspects of radiotherapeutic oncology and/or radiobiological research with mammalian cell lines and animals. Summer research fellowships, available through the Lombardi Cancer Center and the School of Medicine, support individual student projects. Postgraduate radiation medicine programs include an American Board of Radiology approved four-year residency and a selected one-year fellowship program in radiation oncology.
Major research interests of the faculty include clinical research in combined modality treatment of cancer patients and basic science research in radiation biology and radiation physics. Students can participate in ongoing research projects in the tissue culture or small animal laboratories.
The department also offers a graduate program in radiation science. This program leads to a MS with specialization in radiobiology or health physics and is offered primarily in the evening hours to accommodate professionals in government and industry who have undergraduate degrees in the biological or physical sciences. A unique program feature is its internships in health physics, in which students have the opportunity to work with scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Institutes of Health, Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, and other federal and nonfederal institutions in the Washington metropolitan area to gain experience in specific areas of health physics. This is the only program of its kind in the Baltimore/Washington area.