Identifying Opportunities at the UT DRO Radiobiology Retreat

On March 5, 2014, UT DRO faculty met for a one-day retreat focusing on Radiobiology. It was felt that several valuable opportunities were identified during the retreat. Most notably, the investigation of metformin in rectal cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemoRT and for patients receiving SBRT for oligomets (e.g., liver), was a key area.

Each of the faculty members had a chance to present their area of interest, and invited discussion from the group. Dr. Fei-Fei Liu discussed the three research priorities at UT DRO, the Princess Margaret Head & Neck biospecimen database, and the microRNA profiling of Head & Neck samples. The opportunities that were identified included resources for validation of candidate prognostic signatures, and the sharing of preclinical tumour models for biology.

Opportunities resulting from Dr. Marianne Kortizinsky’s research focused on metformin and its applications to improve radiation response. Dr. Brad Wouters’ presentation identified extensive resources for facilitating personalized radiotherapy. Dr. Greg Czarnota spoke about the investigation of tumor and microenvironment of ultrasound microbubble radiosensitization.

Dr. Shun Wong discussed his research about normal radiation tissue toxicity in the CNS. Dr. Rob Bristow stressed the importance for barcoding and biobanking of tumour samples between the two centres to capitalize upon this valuable resource and facilitate future downstream applications. And Dr. Stanley Liu focused on microRNAs and their validation for prediction of aggressive prostate cancer.

Overall, this was a successful retreat, and many potential opportunities were identified across both centres. We thank the participants, and Dr. Stanley Liu for taking the lead on this.