John W. Lee, MD, Residency Program Director, California Pacific Medical Center

Daniel Glaubiger, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Residency Program Director and Chairman of Radiation Oncology, California Pacific Medical Center

Ana Olive
Radiation Oncology Residency Program Coordinator, California Pacific Medical Center

Contact us: cpmcradonc@sutterhealth.org

Program Description

The Radiation Oncology Training Program is based in the Department of Radiation Oncology at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. It was formerly headquartered at St. Mary’s Medical Center prior to 2002. The residency is a clinical and community based integrated program involving Radiation Oncology departments at California Pacific Medical Center, St. Francis Memorial Hospital and Seton Medical Center. Residents rotate through each of the three sites, and are be supervised by faculty from each hospital.
With only 4 residents and 9 radiation oncologists as faculty--residents have an outstanding opportunity for 1 on 1 training in most rotations in clinical radiation oncology. As well, residents have access and hands-on training in IMRT radiation therapy, stereotactic radiosurgery & radiotherapy, interstitial and intracavitary brachytherapy, pediatric radiation oncology, combined modality chemoradiation and participation in national and intergroup radiation oncology trials (eg. RTOG, ECOG). Each of the 3 departments have had new LINACs installed in the last year. Two of the three departments have new GE CT simulators, the third has a Ximatron fluroscopic simulator.

Residents have dedicated didactic sessions once a week in radiobiology, radiation physics and clinical radiation oncology taught by each of the faculty. The faculty encompasses community based radiation oncologists at each of the above facilities. As well we have dedicated radiation physicists and a world-renowned radiation biologists teaching as part of the faculty.

The program is clinically oriented and graduating residents find themselves well-rounded for community and clinically based radiation oncology practices. Residents are also required to complete at least one research project (either clinical or academic) that is suitable for presentation at a national meeting or peer-reviewed journal. All of our current residents have submitted and have been accepted for presentation at the ASTRO annual meeting. Others have presented at ASCO or the RSNA.

Residents have done extremely well on the ABR boards--with a first time pass rate of 100% in the oral and written boards in the past 4 years. Graduates of the program have had gone into successful practice throughout California & the US in major metropolitan centers as well as more rural locations (see FAQs to see a listing of where graduates currently practice).

Read more about the services offered at the Department of Radiation Oncology at California Pacific.