With its recent elevation from a Section within the Department of Medicine to a full department, the new Department of Radiation Oncology and Applied Sciences is poised to make a significant contribution to the Geisel School of Medicine and Dartmouth Health’s national reputation as a destination for cancer care, education, research, and faculty recruitment.
Since joining the Dartmouth community in 2021 to serve as section chief of Radiation Oncology—and now the founding chair of the new department—Charles Thomas, Jr., MD (D ’79), has provided strategic vision and leadership for Radiation Oncology, successfully guiding it to full department status.
In the following Q & A, Thomas talks about his long affiliation with Dartmouth, the evolving specialty of radiation oncology, and some main goals for his new department moving forward.
Q: What attracted you to Dartmouth?
Thomas: I’ve had a relationship with the Upper Valley and the greater Dartmouth community starting back when I was an undergrad in the 1970s and was privileged to be on the 1978 Ivy League Championship football team.
Over the ensuing decades, I’ve developed an affiliation with the entire Dartmouth ecosystem, and was offered a faculty position in 1991 as a medical oncologist. At the time, it was a better fit for me and my family to go to the University of Washington in Seattle. But I always kept an eye on Dartmouth and made multiple visits to the campus in the 2000s, when my children were undergrads here.
After a successful stint as department chair at Oregon Health and Sciences University for about 15 years, I felt that this would be one last pivot for my career, giving me an opportunity to work with some wonderful colleagues at a great institution and participate in the journey to redesign cancer care here in the Upper Valley.
Q: When you talk to folks in the community about the specialty of radiation oncology, how do you describe it?
Thomas: Radiation oncology is one of the oldest anti-cancer tools, at well over 100 years old, as well as one of the most commonly used. About two-thirds of all cancer patients will require radiation therapy at some point in their care, either as part of a curative treatment for an early-stage tumor or to palliate (relieve) symptoms.
With radiation therapy, we use high-energy rays to destroy cancer cells in the body—either through an external beam from a special machine called a linear accelerator or through radiotherapeutic devices, implants, or medication that emit radiation from inside the body. Advances in technology like MR guidance allow us to deliver therapy with greater accuracy and fewer treatments.
Radiation can be used in concert with systemic therapy like immune therapy and chemotherapy, and it can be given sometimes before or after surgery. So, it is oftentimes part of a multidisciplinary approach for patients with malignancies.
Q: What are some of the key benefits of Radiation Oncology gaining full department status?
Thomas: This change brings us into alignment with other academic medical centers with National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated cancer centers. It will help us to raise the visibility of our programs, drive technical innovation, attract research dollars, and improve treatment outcomes for cancer patients and their families.
And gaining full department status will be very helpful with recruiting and hiring highly qualified, talented faculty. It will also allow us to more freely integrate with other programs at Geisel and Dartmouth Health and within the Cancer Center and beyond—without the oversight of being within the Department of Medicine.
Q: Could you talk a little bit about some current key projects that are underway?
Thomas: One of the projects that is a high priority is to recruit outstanding academically inclined faculty. So, with the assistance of the Cancer Center, Geisel, and Dartmouth Health, we were able to recruit a top physician-scientist, Dr. Kelli Pointer, who runs a busy basic science lab in the Rubin Building. With 80 percent protected time, her research focuses on mechanisms of resistance to radiation therapy and other treatments for patients with malignant brain tumors. She is the first of what we hope will be many physician-scientists coming to Dartmouth.
Another is that we’ve broken ground in Manchester at 100 Hitchcock Way, so we will finally be in the Southern part of the state, in the most populous city, where we hope to provide first-rate radiation therapy starting next summer.
And a third is our participation in two major conferences. At the AAPM (American Association for Physicists in Medicine) international meeting held recently in Los Angeles and the upcoming ASTRO (American Society for Radiology Oncology) meeting in Washington, DC, our small department had/will have a double-digit number of presentations from faculty and students. These are two fine examples of Dartmouth “punching above our weight.”
Q: As you look ahead, what are some main priorities for your department?
Thomas: Over the next three-to-five years, we will look to strategically expand our programs and services, in collaboration with colleagues and partners across the Dartmouth ecosystem.
We have an excellent residency training program for physicians and now we’re starting one this fall for medical physicists. We expect to start advanced fellowships, and I will be developing two to three new divisions within the department, one of which will be health services and outcomes research. And I’m especially excited about the possibility of starting an informatics division within Radiation Oncology.
In addition to our resident and medical student training activities, myself and several faculty members in the department seek to interact with undergraduate students in a constructive way—from giving lectures to engaging in mentoring and research projects. That will continue to be a priority for us in the future.
