Research/Conferences

We have up to 12 months of elective time that can be used for research or additional clinical rotations (your pick!). You can take the time in 2 month blocks throughout PGY 3-5 years or as a continuous year. Holman Research Pathway candidates welcome!

Our research ranges from prospective investigator-initiated trials (started by residents and attendings alike!), to retrospective series, population database studies, and basic science collaborations with immunology and other departments. Our site-specific attendings are supportive in helping us develop our own research interests and connect us with our institutional review board or statistical support.

Residents have a generous annual stipend to attend ASTRO and/or any other national conference as long as you have a poster or oral presentation. We love to use this time to spend time to explore new cities with our co-residents, former graduates, friends, colleagues and faculty!

There are also several annual local conferences such as LARS (Los Angeles Radiological Society) and USC’s annual Breast Cancer Symposium that provide opportunity to learn from other experts in radiation oncology.

Peruse some of our most recent publications:

  1. Hwang L, Paluch J, Jadvar H, England JR, Desai B, Ballas LK. Salvage Therapies After 18F-Fluciclovine Detected Prostate Cancer Recurrences. Clin Nucl Med. 2020 Sep;45(9):668-671. doi: 10.1097/RLU.0000000000003104. PMID: 32520496.
  2. Jang JK, Sverdlik ER, Schechter NR. A Radiation Oncologist’s Guide to Axillary Management in Breast Cancer: A Walk Through the Trials. Curr Breast Cancer Rep. 2019 Dec;11(4):293-302. doi: 10.1007/s12609-019-00330-6. Epub 2019 Sep 14. PMID: 32215182; PMCID: PMC7093898.
  3. Jang JK, Reilly M, Yaghmour G, Rashid F, Ballas LK. Acute Respiratory Events and Dosimetry of Total Body Irradiation Patients Using In Vivo Lung Dose Monitoring and Custom Lung Block Adaptation. Pract Radiat Oncol. 2020 Sep-Oct;10(5):e397-e405. doi: 10.1016/j.prro.2020.03.005. Epub 2020 Apr 18. PMID: 32315783.
  4. Tucker D, Penn M, Brunswick A, Uttarwar V, Gogia A, Marietta M, Yu C, Carmichael J, Chang E, Zada G. Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Residual and Recurrent Nonfunctioning Pituitary Adenomas: A Contemporary Case Series of GammaKnife and CyberKnife Radiosurgery. World Neurosurg. 2020 Jun 27:S1878-8750(20)31459-5. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2020.06.191. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 32603864.
  5. Tavakol S, Jackanich A, Strickland BA, Marietta M, Ravina K, Yu C, Chang EL, Giannotta S, Zada G. Effectiveness of Gamma Knife Radiosurgery in the Treatment of Refractory Trigeminal Neuralgia: A Case Series. Oper Neurosurg (Hagerstown). 2020 Jun 1;18(6):571-576. doi: 10.1093/ons/opz311. PMID: 31620790.
  6. Wang T, Pham A, Yoo S, Attenello FJ, Jennelle R, Wagle N, Chang EL, Zada G. Identifying Disparities in Care in Treating Glioblastoma: A Retrospective Cohort Study of Patients Treated at a Safety-net Versus Private Hospital Setting. World Neurosurg. 2020 May;137:e213-e220. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2020.01.133. Epub 2020 Jan 27. PMID: 32001415.
  7. Ballas L, Wei O, Daneshmand S, Schuckman A, Djaladat H, Aron M, D’Souza A, Quinn D, Dorff TB. Chemoradiation for Management of Locally Recurrent or Residual Bladder Cancer: A Case Series and Review of the Literature. Clin Genitourin Cancer. 2020 Aug;18(4):e473-e477. doi: 10.1016/j.clgc.2019.12.016. Epub 2020 Jan 7. PMID: 32044240.
  8. Salcedo J, Suen SC, Bian SX. Cost-effectiveness of chemoradiation followed by esophagectomy versus chemoradiation alone in squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus. Cancer Med. 2020 Jan;9(2):440-446. doi: 10.1002/cam4.2721. Epub 2019 Nov 20. PMID: 31749330; PMCID: PMC6970052.
  9. Dunne EM, Sahgal A, Lo SS, Bergman A, Kosztyla R, Dea N, Chang EL, Chang UK, Chao ST, Faruqi S, Ghia AJ, Redmond KJ, Soltys SG, Liu MC. International consensus recommendations for target volume delineation specific to sacral metastases and spinal stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). Radiother Oncol. 2020 Apr;145:21-29. doi: 10.1016/j.radonc.2019.11.026. Epub 2019 Dec 23. PMID: 31874346.
  10. Zhuang AH, Olch AJ. A practical method for the reuse of nanoDot OSLDs and predicting sensitivities up to at least 7000 cGy. Med Phys. 2020 Apr;47(4):1481-1488. doi: 10.1002/mp.14059. Epub 2020 Feb 21. PMID: 32009242.
  11. Vaidya P, Mehta A, Ragab O, Lin S, In GK. Concurrent radiation therapy with programmed cell death protein 1 inhibition leads to a complete response in advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. JAAD Case Rep. 2019 Aug 29;5(9):763-766. doi: 10.1016/j.jdcr.2019.06.026. PMID: 31516991; PMCID: PMC6728732.
  12. Toll SA, Jones MT, Yoshida EJ, Dhall G, Olch AJ, Wong KK. The relationship between ventricular volume and whole-brain irradiation dose in central nervous system germ cell tumors. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2019 Dec;66(12):e28005. doi: 10.1002/pbc.28005. Epub 2019 Sep 18. PMID: 31535450.