Department of Radiation Oncology, Boston University Medical Centre, Massachusetts, USA

Biography
Lisa Kachnic, MD is Chairperson of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Boston University Medical Center. She also serves on the Radiation Oncology faculty at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She received her undergraduate degree from Boston College and her medical degree from Tufts University. Dr Kachnic completed her residency in Radiation Oncology at Harvard University, her last year as chief resident. 

Dr. Kachnic belongs to a number of professional organizations including ASTRO, ASCO, AACR, Radiation Research and the International Society of Gastrointestinal Oncology. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and Gastrointestinal Cancer Research, and contributes her radiation expertise to the U.S. Department of Defense Medical Research Study Sections. Her primary areas of interest include colo-rectal and anal malignancies, image-guided radiation delivery, outcomes/symptoms management research and translational research. She is actively involved in the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group’s GI and Outcome strategic committees and has been the RTOG Chairperson of Symptom Management since 2003. She also serves as GI Radiation Oncology Chair and Discipline Vice-chair of the Radiation Oncology Committee for the Southwest Oncology Group. As such, she has been given the opportunity to serve as principal or co-principal investigator on several national trials, including RTOG 0529 - a phase II trial evaluating dose-painted IMRT in combination with 5-fluorouracil and mitomycin-C for the reduction of acute morbidity in carcinoma of the anal canal. As a tribute to these efforts, Dr. Kachnic has been awarded funding as Principal Investigator, National Cancer Institute, U10 CA37422, “Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) Radiation Therapy Oncology Group,” and is the 2008 recipient of the first RTOG “Next Generation Investigator” Award.

Dr. Kachnic has other national leadership positions which are worthy of mention. She is Chairperson of the American College of Radiology Written Board in gastrointestinal cancers, Vice-chairperson of the GI committee at the American College of Radiology’s Q-RRO (Quality Research in Radiation Oncology) and serves on the Intergroup’s Colon Cancer Task Force. Dr. Kachnic is the principal investigator on several Boston Medical Center funded research efforts including two U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command Office Center of Excellence Program Projects. Her current laboratory work relates to the development of potential targets for molecularly directed therapies by identifying genetic defects in the DNA repair pathway involving the Fanconi Anemia genes. Dr. Kachnic’s research has resulted in numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters and reviews.