ASTRO to honor two radiation oncologists with 2011 Gold Medal award

The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has selected K. Kian Ang, MD, PhD, FASTRO, and Bernard Cummings, MB, ChB, FASTRO, as the Society's 2011 Gold Medal recipients. Drs. Ang and Cummings will be recognized with this honor at the Awards Ceremony held during ASTRO's 53rd Annual Meeting taking place October 2-6, 2011, in Miami Beach, Fla.

The Gold Medal is the Society's highest honor. It 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. Ang is a former ASTRO Board of Directors chairman and a 25-year member of the Society. Over the span of his career he has established himself as one of the leading head and neck radiation oncologists. He was, for example, a key leader in several large scale national and international studies for patients with various head and neck cancers, which established that accelerated fractionation is better than standard fractionation in yielding tumor control, adding inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor signaling pathway to radiation improves survival and that human papilloma virus-associated throat cancers respond much better to therapy than smoking-induced counterparts. These findings have gradually changed the standard treatment for head and neck cancer over the past 15 years. Dr. Ang authored Radiotherapy for Head and Neck Cancer, which is now in its third edition and considered an essential radiation oncology educational resource and treatment guide. He currently holds the Gilbert H. Fletcher Distinguished Memorial Chair of radiation oncology and is a professor of radiation oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston where he has been on staff since 1984.

Dr. Cummings is a 31-year member of ASTRO and was integral in the establishment of the Society's international relations efforts. As a long-standing member and chair of the International Relations Committee, Dr. Cummings and his colleagues established ASTRO international education courses and international visiting professor programs to provide guidance to radiation oncologists in medically developing countries. He served as organizer and speaker for eight courses around the world and served as the ASTRO representative to the Sino-American Network for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, Asociación Latinoamericana de Terapia Radiante Oncológica (ALATRO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Dr. Cummings is a world-renowned expert in gastrointestinal cancers, specifically anal and rectal cancer, and with his clinical colleagues has made several scientific advances in the primary radiation treatment of rectal cancer and the combined modality treatment of anal cancer. He is currently a professor of radiation oncology at the University of Toronto and a radiation oncologist at Princess Margaret Hospital, both in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Cummings is a former chief of radiation oncology at Princess Margaret Hospital and chair of the department of radiation oncology at the University of Toronto, positions he held from 1991-2001.

"Drs. Ang and Cummings have both made significant contributions to radiation oncology, ASTRO and cancer patients worldwide over the span of their careers," Anthony L. Zietman, MD, chairman of the ASTRO Board of Directors and a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said. "ASTRO has been extremely lucky to have them so involved in the Society and I am honored to be able to recognize them for their decades of hard work and dedication with this year's Gold Medal award."