Promotions Announcement

We are delighted to formally announce the successful promotion of our UTDRO faculty for the current academic cycle!

L-R Drs. Scott Bratman, Kathy Han, Daniel Létourneau, Eric Leung, Gerard Morton, Mark Ruschin, and Ewa Szumacher

Full Professor

Dr. Gerard Morton  
Dr. Morton earned his MB, BcH, BAO from the National University of Ireland, Medicine in 1985, and his FRCPC in Radiation Oncology in 1994. He has been a staff Radiation Oncologist at the Odette Cancer Center since 1991. Dr. Morton was appointed as an Assistant Professor in 1996, then promoted to Associate Professor in 2011. Dr. Morton has risen to international acclaim for his expertise in prostate cancer brachytherapy. In this regard, Dr. Morton has changed practice globally on the indications for brachytherapy for men with prostate cancer. His high-impact work includes the demonstration of the important role of brachytherapy vs. EBRT boost for men with intermediate and high-risk prostate cancer.

Dr. Ewa Szumacher
Dr. Szumacher earned her MD from the Medical University of Lodz, Poland in 1982, and her MEd in 2005 from the University of Toronto. She was appointed in UTDRO as an Assistant Professor in 2001, then promoted to Associate Professor in 2013. She has also been a Staff Radiation Oncologist at the Odette Cancer Centre since 1998. Dr. Szumacher is currently the Co-director of the Faculty Development and Continuing Education/Professional Development at UTDRO as well as the Academic Coordinator for the Medical Radiation Sciences Program. Dr. Szumacher has made significant contributions in the area of understanding the needs and preferences of cancer patients within a radiation oncology setting including older women with early breast cancer undergoing adjuvant RT. She is the founding member of the Senior Women Breast Cancer Clinic (SWBCC) for women 70+ years of age. She has also published foundational work in the area of inter-professional education and practice in radiation oncology to improve global collaboration in cancer education. She is an Honorary Fellow in the Association for Medical Education Europe, and President of the American Association for Cancer Education.

Associate Professor

Dr. Scott Bratman
Dr. Bratman joined UTDRO in 2014 from Stanford University, where he completed his residency training. He is also a Staff Radiation Oncologist-Clinician Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Research Institute. Dr. Bratman earned an AB magna cum laude in Molecular Biology from Princeton University in 2002, followed by a joint MD/PhD from Columbia University in 2009. Dr. Bratman’s work on circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) for the early detection of cancer deserves high recognition. He embarked on this line of investigation as a resident/fellow at Stanford University, and has continued his quest to render ‘liquid biopsies’ a clinical reality. This work has been patented and commercialized by Roche Molecular Diagnostics, and has the potential for millions of patients to have their cancer diagnosed earlier, thereby facilitating critical intervention before disease progression. This promising project is just one of many excellent cancer research programs that Dr. Bratman has developed successfully since he joined UTDRO in 2014.

Dr. Kathy Han
Dr. Han earned her MD from McGill University in 2006, and an MSc in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2014. She was appointed as a Clinician-Investigator in the Princess Margaret Department of Radiation Oncology in 2013, as well as an Assistant Professor in UTDRO. In 2016, Dr. Han became an Associate Member of the Institute of Medical Science at U of T, and that same year, successfully captured the Clinician-Scientist Award from OARO (Ontario Association of Radiation Oncologists). Dr. Han has advanced a robust and significant research program with clinical impact. In particular, her seminal 2013 publication in the Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys had a profound influence on highlighting the importance of brachytherapy for women with cervix cancer. Since then, Dr. Han has published extensively on topics ranging from cervix brachytherapy toxicity to MRI biomarkers for cervix cancer radiotherapy.

Dr. Daniel Létourneau
A highly respected and productive member of the international physics community, Dr. Létourneau’s work has centered on quality control (QC) in radiation therapy and image-guided radiation therapy. He developed the AQUA software, which is a quality management system for all equipment in radiation therapy, which centralizes all QC tests in one location. It has proven to be a significant commercial success, acquired by Elekta in 2018, and is now used around the world. Dr. Létourneau earned his PhD in Medical Physics in 2008, was recruited to the Princess Margaret Medical Physics Department in 2004, and appointed as an Assistant Professor in UTDRO in 2009. In July 2019, he was appointed as the Interim Head of Medical Physics in the Radiation Medicine Program at the Princess Margaret (PM) Cancer Centre.

Dr. Eric Leung
Dr. Leung earned his MD from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2007, and obtained an MSc in Medical Biophysics from U of T in 2011. He was appointed as an Assistant Professor in UTDRO and a Radiation Oncologist in the Department of Radiation Oncology from Odette Cancer Centre in 2014, after a year as faculty at Western University in London, ON. Dr. Leung has made major contributions in the areas of interstitial and MRI-based brachytherapy for gynecological malignancies, and salvage treatment for recurrent gynecological tumours using ablative radiotherapy. He is the Co-Chair of the International Guidelines on Vaginal Recurrence Brachytherapy for the European Society for Radiotherapy/American Brachytherapy Society/Canadian Brachytherapy Group Consortium; a Member of the Cervix Core Committee for NRG Oncology (the largest clinical trials group in Radiation Oncology in North America); and a Member of the MR-LINAC Gynecological Oncology Site Group for the international MR-LINAC Consortium.

Dr. Mark Ruschin
Dr. Ruschin earned his PhD in Medical Radiation Physics from Lunds Universitet in Sweden in 2006, and completed his residency training in medical physics at the Princess Margaret Hospital in 2010. He has held an Assistant Professor appointment in UTDRO since 2011, and also holds appointments as Medical Physicist in the Department of Medical Physics at the Odette Cancer Centre, as well as cross-appointment to the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at U of T. Dr. Ruschin has centered his work on improving patient care pathways through the introduction, evaluation, and implementation of innovative technologies. He has developed an online cone-beam CT system for Gamma Knife CNS radiosurgery, which has now been commercialized by Elekta.

Please join us in congratulating Drs. Bratman, Han, Létourneau, Leung, Morton, Ruschin, and Szumacher on their respective academic promotions, effective July 1, 2020. For the second year in a row, UTDRO successfully repeated our record of seven promotions! We would also like to take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude to Dr. Shun Wong, the UTDRO Vice-Chair of Clinical Affairs, who is an outstanding Chair of our Departmental Promotions Committee. Congratulations again to all the successful candidates for 2020 – UTDRO is so proud of all your achievements!