Radiation Oncology-CCOM

05/06/2025

Kudos to Dr. James Byrne for receiving the prestigious 2024 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's New Innovator Award!
A great physician researcher doing great things for patients with cancer!

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/lighting-new-path-cancer-care-radiation-therapy #

12/23/2024

Congratulations to our winner and runners-up of our 2nd annual Gingerbread House decorating contest. This year's contest was so close we had to highlight the top 3! Thanks again to ALL who participated and to all of our patients who voted!

This year's winner was "Cancer Tree-tment" designed by Kati Huerth, RTT, Makenna Schmitz, RTT, Maddy Roozeboom, RTT, Matt Roozeboom, DO, Emma Cotant, RTT and Britney Worby, RTT

"Frozen Force": Julie Clark, RTT, Whitney Hetzler, RTT, Olivia Newbanks, RTT, LaDonna Venker, Mindy McCreight, MA and Stacey Werts, PCT (Bettendorf location)

"Up": Wendy Jones, CMD, Tina Wulfekuhle, CMD, Keegan Sanborn, CMD, Brandi Gross, CMD, Darrin Pelland, CMD, Kristin Plichta, MD, PhD, Kim McCune, CMD, Ashley Way, MD

12/23/2024

Ugly Sweater Day in Rad Onc 2024. Thanks to all who participated this year. We had some great sweaters, good food and great fun! Thanks to Dr. Allen for the pizza!

12/03/2024

In recognition of winning our fourth consecutive Outstanding Patient Team Award, faculty and staff enjoyed a delicious lunch from Olive Garden. Thank you to the Office of the Patient Experience for providing the meal and to each of you for your attentive and compassionate care of our patients. Well done!

11/25/2024

Shelter House Necessity Drive update: thanks to all the generous donations received in only three days, we made our first drop-off at the Shelter House on Friday night. Thank you to all who donated and to Linda Crowely for delivering the supplies on our behalf. Let's see how many times we can fill the tubs again before December 20!

11/21/2024

Congratulations to Andrean Simons-Burnett, PhD who is the recipient of a $1,768,815 R01 grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. The award will support her project "Inflammation and EGFR crosstalk in HNSCC Therapy," which seeks to understand how drug resistance to targeted therapy occurs and develop new strategies to allow these therapies to work. Well done to her and to her research team for winning this grant!

11/20/2024

We’re off to a GREAT start for our Shelter House Necessity Drive! Warmed by a delicious soup lunch from the Bread Garden, we’ve collected over two tubs of much-needed donations. If you missed out on donating supplies today, we’re accepting donations until December 20. Thanks to the Rad Onc Social Committee for organizing the drive and keeping us cozy on such a chilly day, and to all those who have donated so far. Keep ‘em coming!

Items needed: Winter hats, gloves and scarves; unopened cases of water; new socks, new underwear and new bras; toilet paper; dish soap; toiletries (liquid body wash, lotions, razors); diapers (size 3-6).

11/08/2024

For the fourth year in a row, the Department of Radiation Oncology was awarded the Outstanding Patient Experience Team Award by the Office of the Patient Experience. This award is voted for by the patients we treat and is a reflection of the consistency of the quality of the care that we deliver every day. In response to the question “How well staff worked together for your care”, we scored 90.35% which translates to a National Percentile Rank of 93%.
The awards presentation coincided with Marie Curie’s birthday and International Day of Medical Physics celebrated in style with decorated cookies!

10/31/2024

The votes are in! The winning pumpkin is "Ms. Puffkin", and the best team name "The Puffkins". Thank-you and well done to all the teams who participated with such imaginative creations.

10/25/2024

Thanks to our social team for the delicious Tailgate breakfast this morning!

10/25/2024

Halloween celebrations are in full swing! See the marvelously creative pumpkins carved by Radiation Oncology teams in the reception area. Pumpkins and team names will be judged by our patients and the winner in each category announced on Halloween.

10/10/2024

Dr. James Byrne’s research involving Gas-Entrapping Materials receives an excellent review in the fall edition of Medicine Iowa. Drinkable and topical foam are used to deliver different gases (carbon monoxide or oxygen) in order to inhibit cancer cell proliferation and promote wound healing.

Iowa researchers explore gas-entrapping materials to boost chemotherapy, radiation treatments