ASTRO to honor David Larson and William McBride with prestigious Gold Medal award

Will receive awards at Society's 52nd Annual Meeting in San Diego

David Larson, M.D., Ph.D., FASTRO, and William McBride, D.Sc., Ph.D., have been chosen to receive the American Society for Radiation Oncology's most prestigious award, the Gold Medal. They will be presented with this honor at the Awards Ceremony during ASTRO's 52nd Annual Meeting, taking place October 31 to November 4, 2010, in San Diego.

The Gold Medal is bestowed on revered members who have made outstanding contributions to the field of radiation oncology, including research, clinical care, teaching and service. Recipients are drawn from any of the scientific disciplines represented by the members of the Society.

Dr. Larson is a former ASTRO president and a 25-year member of the Society. He is currently a professor in the departments of radiation oncology and neurological surgery at the University of California San Francisco and co-director of the Gamma Knife Radiosurgery Program at Washington Hospital Healthcare System in Fremont, Calif. Dr. Larson received his doctorate in physics from the University of Chicago in Illinois and his medical degree from the University of Miami in Florida. He completed his internship at the University of California San Francisco and his residency at the Harvard Medical School Joint Centers for Radiation Therapy in Boston, where he was chief resident. Dr. Larson has received several professional honors, including being named a fellow of ASTRO and the American College of Radiology and receiving the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society Jacob I. Fabrikant Award, which is awarded every two years for longstanding and significant contributions to the field of radiosurgery. Dr. Larson was a pioneer of brain and body radiosurgery and participated in clinical research that helped define how brain tumors are managed.

Dr. McBride is a former member of the ASTRO Board of Directors and a 20-year member of the Society. He is currently a professor and vice-chair of research for the UCLA Department of Radiation Oncology and was previously a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he received his Ph.D. and D.Sc. He is a member of several professional societies, including the Radiation Research Society, from which he was awarded the Failla Award for Outstanding Research, the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research. His research investigates the role of tissue damage responses to radiation in normal tissues and tumors and how to modify these so as to increase the benefit to be derived from cancer radiotherapy.

"Drs. Larson and McBride have both made outstanding contributions to ASTRO and to radiation oncology; the specialty is better because of them," Tim R. Williams, ASTRO chairman and a radiation oncologist at Boca Raton Community Hospital in Boca Raton, Fla., said. "I will be proud to present them with the Gold Medal this year and proud to have them represent ASTRO as recipients of this distinguished award."