William Chu

Research Synopsis

Dr. Chu is a Clinician Investigator and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Sunnybrook and the University of Toronto. He is an active member of the Gastrointestinal and Genitourinary Cancer Care teams. 

Dr. Chu is an Affiliate Scientist in Physical Sciences at the Sunnybrook Research Institute. The focus of his research is the development and evaluation of innovative, high-impact radiation treatment strategies to improve patient outcomes and quality of life. He sustains national and international collaborative studies, and his areas of research include: 

1)    Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for patients with kidney and prostate cancer, and tumours involving the liver, pancreas, adrenal glands and lymph nodes.  He is the principal investigator of a Canadian multi-centre, phase II study of SBRT for patients with inoperable renal cell carcinoma, a co-investigator of studies combining SBRT with immunotherapy and targeted therapy for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, and the Canadian lead of an international randomized phase III trial of prostate SBRT 

2)    Early phase studies of MRI-guided radiotherapy and HIFU/hyperthermia for patients with rectal cancer

Recent Publications

Van As NJ, Brand D, Tree A, Ostler PJ, Chu W, Loblaw A, Ford D, Tolan SP, Jain S, Martin AS, Staffurth J, Brown S, Burnett SM, Duffton A, Griffin C, Hinder V, Morrison K, Naismith OF, Hall H. PACE: Analysis of acute toxicity in PACE-B, an international phase III randomized controlled trial comparing stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) to conventionally fractionated or moderately hypofractionated external beam radiotherapy (CFMHRT) for localized prostate cancer (LPCa). ASCO GU, San Francisco, California. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 37(Suppl 7s): abstr 2019.

Siva S, Louie A, Warner A, Muacevic A, Senthil G, Ponsky L, Ellis R, Kaplan I, Mahadevan A, Chu W, Swaminath S, Honishi, Teh B, Correa R, Smlo S, Staehler M. Pooled analysis of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy for primary renal cell carcinoma: A report from the International Radiosurgery Oncology Consortium for Kidney (IROCK). Cancer.  124(5):934-94 2018.

Chan M, Dennis K, Chow E, Saghal A, Hynenen K, Czarnota GJ, Chu W. Magnetic Resonance-Guided High Intensity Focused Ultrasound for Palliation of Painful Skeletal Metastases - A Pilot Study. Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment. 2017. 16(5): 570-576.

Chu W, Staruch R, Pichardo S, Tillander M, Kohler M, Huang Y, Ylihautala M, McGuffin M, Czarnota G, Hynynen K. Magnetic resonance-guided high intensity focused ultrasound (MR-HIFU) hyperthermia for recurrent rectal cancer: MR thermometry evaluation and preclinical validation. International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics. 2016; 95(4):1259-67.

Chang J, Cheung P, Erler D, Sonier M, Korol R, Chu W. Stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) for primary renal cell carcinoma in non-surgical candidates: Initial clinical experience. Clinical Oncology. 2016; 28(9):e109-14. 

Appointments

Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto
Staff Radiation Oncologist, Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre
Affiliate Scientist, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Canada