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Radiation Oncology focuses on the use of radiation for cancer therapy and research. The department does not offer degrees; however, its faculty teach courses open to medical students, graduate students, and undergraduates. The department also accepts students in other curricula as advisees for study and research. Graduate students in Biophysics and Cancer Biology may perform their thesis research in the department. Undergraduates may arrange individual research projects under supervision of faculty.

At the present time, the major areas of basic research investigation in the department include: DNA repair in mammalian cells after ionizing irradiation; studies of the mechanism of tumor hypoxia in animal tumors; development of new anti-cancer drugs to exploit tumor hypoxia; cytogenetic and molecular methods of predicting the sensitivity of individual tumors to cancer therapy; radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies for cancer detection and treatment; studies of oxygen levels in human tumors using polarographic electrodes; clinical trials of a new hypoxic cytotoxic agent (tirapazamine); studies of the late effects of cancer therapy; and techniques of conformal and intensity modulated radiation therapy.

The Department offers training leading to the Ph.D. in Biomedical Physics (BMP).

The Biomedical Physics (BMP) Graduate Program is a Ph.D. training program hosted by the Departments of Radiology and Radiation Oncology within the Stanford University School of Medicine. The objective of the Ph.D. in BMP is to train students in research focused on technology translatable to clinical medicine, including radiation therapy, image-guided therapy, diagnostic, interventional, and molecular imaging, and other forms of disease detection and characterization with molecular diagnostics. Given the evolution of modern medicine towards technologically sophisticated treatments and diagnostics, there is a need for well-trained leaders with this educational background and the skills to conduct meaningful and significant research in this field. Stanford University has a rich tradition of innovation and education within these disciplines, with advances ranging from the development and application of the medical linear accelerator towards radiation treatment of cancer to the engineering of non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging having been pioneered here.

Thanks to the efforts of faculty in these departments and the support of department chairs Dr. Quynh Le and the late Dr. Sam Gambhir, we created the BMP program in 2021 to train doctoral students within the world-class research environment at Stanford. In fall 2021 we will solicit our first round of applications for students. The first incoming class beginning in fall 2022 will take courses spanning traditional and emerging topics in medical physics and perform original research under the mentorship of experts in this evolving discipline. This is the first PhD program at Stanford housed in clinical departments and will be leveraged this position at the intersection of basic and clinical science to train students in translational research. We look forward to helping you achieve your educational goals within our program and to training the next generation of leaders in this burgeoning field.

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Biomedical Physics (BMP) Graduate Program
Department of Radiation Oncology
1201 Welch Rd
Mail Code: 5488
Stanford, CA 94305

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