KSOM Radiation Oncology

News, Updates, Awards, and Publications

July 2026

Andrew Lim, MD – at the International Society of Ocular Oncology – Rio, Brazil Dr. Lim presented two research studies: “A Digital Twin Platform for Ocular Melanoma Outcomes” & “Dosimetric Evaluation of Silicone Oil in Plaque Brachytherapy for Uveal Melanoma” (photo attached)

Andrew Lim, MD – at the American Brachytherapy Society Conference, Los Angeles Dr. Lim was asked to give a podium talk on developing a skin brachytherapy program and asked to moderate several research presentations.

June 2026

Congratulations Dr. Hualin Zhang, PhD – on your promotion to Professor of Clinical Radiation Oncology! We are very excited and proud of your past and continuing academic accomplishments and achievements at USC!!

Hirsch Matani, MD, Elizabeth Zhang-Velten, MD, PhD, and Binh Ngo, MD – Onclive has published their pod cast episode on managing multidisciplinary treatment options for skin cancer. Link to Episode

PMOB team – at Korean BBQ for their first care for the caregiver team building event! (photo attached)

Joshua Schiff, MD – received the NRG Early Career Investigator Travel Award which will fund his travel expenses to the next NRG group meeting.

May  2026

Zhilei (Julie) Shen, PhD – completed the KSOM Flourishing Leadership Integrative Program (FLIP). FLIP is a cohort-based experience designed to help faculty lead with clarity, compassion, and impact. The six-session program integrates values-based leadership, relational awareness, and core academic leadership competencies, with practical tools that can be applied immediately in academic and clinical settings. Please see the attached program, certificate, and photo.

Joshua Schiff, MD – Presented at the ARS Annual Meeting last weekend on future directions for the field of online adaptive radiotherapy. (see attached)

Benjamin Ziemer, PhD – at an invited talk at the SGRT 2026 meeting. He will is taling about the use of MapRT in SFRT planning. The ‘real title’ of the talk is:  Non-Coplanar Spatially Fractionated Radiation Therapy (SFRT) for Complex Thoracic Lesions: Using MapRT to Improve SFRT Efficacy and OAR Dose Reduction. Link to Agenda

Adam Garsa, MD – featured in a story in the USC Health magazine. The article features a voice actor who was diagnosed with tonsil cancer and his journey through treatment with surgery and radiation. Link to Article

Joshua Schiff, MD – Excited to announce that our very own rising MS4 (and future radiation oncologist) Alex Kessler had our first Reflexion/BgRT abstract accepted to ASTRO on his project exploring the utility of synthetic PET-evaluation as a screening tool for BgRT. Fantastic work Alex!

April  2026

Zhilei (Julie) Shen, PhD, Zhengzheng Xu, PhD, and ChihYao (Roger) Cheng, PhD  – The 2026 AAPM Spring meeting was held in Orlando, Florida, from March 21 to March 24, 2026. Drs. Shen, Xu, and Cheng each gave a 20-min invited presentation titled “Halcyon Treatment Planning”, “An Overview of Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) with Halcyon Linac System”, and “Solo Vault: Halcyon Specifications, Operation Strategic Considerations, and Shielding Design”, respectively. Their talks were featured as part of a six-speaker scientific session, “Fair Winds and Following Seas: Advancements with Halcyon”, held on Monday, March 23, 2006.

March 2026

Joshua Schiff, MD – recently published as first author in the Red Journal on a phase I trial in endometrial cancer I led in residency: https://www.redjournal.org/article/S0360-3016(26)00087-8/abstract

Joshua Schiff, MD – gave an invited talk on advances in lung SBRT at the Keck School of Medicine Advances in Diagnosis, Staging, and Management of Complex Pulmonary Diseases Conference.

Joshua Schiff, MD – Resident Dr. Ahari and Dr Schiff were invited to write a manuscript on adaptive and non-adaptive DTU which was just published in the Journal of Radiotherapy in Practice: Practical considerations for implementing an adaptive or non-adaptive direct-to-unit radiotherapy programme | Journal of Radiotherapy in Practice | Cambridge Core

Hualin Zhang, PhD  – The 2026 Radiosurgery Society (RSS) International SFRT/Flash Symposium and the RSS Annual Meeting were held in Orlando, Florida, from March 17 to March 21, 2026. Dr. Zhang co moderated the symposium with Dr. Sha Chang of University of North Carolina on March 18, 2026, covering a total of 17 presentations. Dr. Zhang also moderated an oral SFRT presentation session during the RSS Annual Meeting on March 19, 2026.

Lauren Lukas, MD –  delivered a presentation titled “Clinical Insights on 2D and 3D SFRT with Bispecific and Cellular Therapy in Hematologic Malignancies.”

Salim Balik, PhD and Hualin Zhang, PhD – Dr. Balik was invited to speak on “GRID Collimator based SFRT Physics Commissioning and Clinical Implementation Workflow,” but due to a clinical schedule conflict, Dr. Zhang presented on his behalf. Another invited speaker from China was also unable to attend, and Dr. Zang additionally presented their talk, “3D SFRT Experience at Fujian Union Hospital.”

Adam Garsa, MD – For the forthcoming May issue of USC Health, a patient story will run featuring a tonsil cancer patient treated by Dr. Garsa.

Joshua Schiff, MD – featured on Keck Medicine social media for Physician’s Week.

February  2026

Congratulations Dr. Kaley Woods, PhD – on winning sponsor funding for her GammaTile Spine Proposal.

Dr. Zhilei (Julie) Shen, PhD – As President of the AAPM Southern California Chapter (AAPM-SCC), Dr. Zhilei (Julie) Shen organized the 2026 AAPM-SCC Mid-Winter Symposium, held at the Universal City Hilton Hotel last Friday Jan. 30, 2026. The symposium attracted more than 150 attendees, including medical physicists, dosimetrists, therapists, residents, students, and CDPH officers. This meeting has been approved by CAMPEP for 6.81 credits, by ASRT for 8.25 credits, by MDCB for 8 credits, and by CDPH for 7 credits. The event was supported by 29 industry sponsors and featured eight invited speakers. Dr. Shen also delivered an invited talk titled “Dose Summation”.

Gamma Knife Update – our USC team is working diligently to implement the new Gamma Knife Espirit to Keck Medicine of USC and CNS Rad oncs and neurosurgeons currently undergoing hands-on Clinical applications training.

Eric Chang, MD – patient success story.  Dr. Chang’s patient regains the life she loves through cutting edge Stereotactic-radiosurgery

January  2026

Joshua Schiff, MD – accepted to the NRG Oncology Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancer Committee

Lauren Lukas, MD – accepted to the NRG Oncology Immunotherapy Subcommittee.

Zhengzheng Xu, PhD – accepted as the member of NRG medical physics core subcommittee.

Adam Garsa, MD – accepted as member of NRG Oncology Head and Neck Cancer Committee

Congratulations to Jason Ye, MD and PMOB team – for delivering the first BgRT case at Pasadena last week.

Congratulations Julie Shen, PHD – appointed as an Association Editor for the Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics (JACMP) for the 2026-2028 term

May Lin Tao, MD and Eric Chang, MD – blog article by Dr. Tao and Chang, “7 Big Changes in Radiation Oncology” was published on LinkedIn.

Physics Department Publication – Yutaka Natsuaki, Salim Balik, Benjamin Ziemer, and Zhilei (Julie) Shen have a review article published recently titled “Tomotherapy-based stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiation therapy”.

December  2025

Breast Cancer Symposium – our 13th annual USC Multi – Disciplinary Breast Cancer Symposium is scheduled for January 17, 2026. (Webpage link)

KMC Gingerbread House Contest – Congratulations Radiation Oncology Department on winning the gingerbread contest. (see attachment)

November 2025

New Publication – collaborative publication titled “Initial experience of spatially fractionated lattice radiation therapy for palliative treatment of pediatric bulky tumors. Link to Article (PDF attached as well)

New Publication – collaborative publication titled “Use of the EORTC QLQ-BN20 and the FACT-Br for the assessment of quality of life in patients with brain tumors: a systematic review of prospective clinical studies”. Published in Supportive and Palliative Care 19:4:270-278, Dec 2025 (see attachment)

September 2025

New Publication – Zhengzheng Xu, Salim Balik, Kaley Woods, Andrew Lim, Jason Ye, Eric Chang, K. Lyons, Lijun Ma, Zhilei Shen, Lauren Lukas, Hualin Zhang. Stereotactic core ablative radiation therapy for small hypoxic tumors: impact of dosimetric approaches and consequent optimization strategy in the context of spatially fractionated radiation therapy. Frontiers in Oncology. Vol. 15. 2025. Link to Publication

August 2025

May Lin Tao, MD – Dr. Tao co-authored a new paper titled “Physician and Software Assessed Cosmetic Outcomes Following Whole Breast or Partial Breast Radiation Therapy for Breast Cancer”.

Jason Ye, MD – New publication titled “Factors Associated With Local Control and Toxicity of Hypofractionated Radiotherapy for Early and Late-Stage Ultracentral Lung Tumors”.  Joint effort by Dr. Ye and Medical students as part of the CHLA/SORF program.

Jason Ye, MD and Daphne Stewart, MD – recently did an online video discussion multidisciplinary breast cancer management. Coordindated Care in Breast Oncology series episodes 1-7

Eric Chang, MD – co-authored the article “ Long-term Results From a phase 1 Study of Spinal Cord Constraint Relaxation With Single Session Spine Stereotactic Radiosurgery in the Primary Management of Patients With Inoperable, Previously Unirradiated Spinal Metastases With Epidural Extension”. Link to Article

Zhilei (Julie) Shen, PhD – elected as the secretary of the Northern American Chinese Medical Physicists Association (NACMPA) during the 2025 AAPM meeting. She will serve a two-year term from 2026 to 2027.

Physics Announcement – at the 2025 AAPM Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., the USC Medical Physics team showcased their research, hosted a booth at the residency fair, attended the President’s Symposium featuring KSOM Dean Carolyn Melzer, and took part in the 2025 AAPM Advocacy Day to raise awareness of the field of Medical Physics.

Congratulations to the ARS AUC GI Committee – For Publication of the Executive Summary of the American Radium Society Appropriate Use Criteria for the Management of Peritoneal Carcinomatosis From Different Tumor Origins: Systematic Review and Guidelines in Cancer Medicine. Access Here

July 2025

Announcement Eric Chang, MD – would like to report and celebrate Radiation Oncology Department’s outstanding patient experience scores at 99%tile in all categories. Radiology, Oncology.

Benjamin Ziemer, PhD – served on the writing committee helping publish a practice parameter titled “ACR-ARS Practice Parameter for the Performance of Stereotactic Body RadiationTherapy”. Link to Practice Parameter

Jason Ye, MD – Dr. Ye has been serving as the vice chair of the American Radium Society Appropriateness Use Criteria Breast Committee. The group recently published their latest guidelines for regional nodal irradiation for breast cancer. Article attached.

Adam Garsa, MD and Jason Ye, MD – Drs. Garsa and Ye published the “ACR-ARS Practice Parameter for Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT)” in the American Journal of Clinical Oncology. This is a national practice guideline for the use of image-guided radiation therapy in radiation oncology, sponsored by the American College of Radiology and the American Radium Society. Link to Abstract

Jason Ye, MD and Justin Park, MD – Drs. Ye and Park were invited to participate in the annual SORF program “fieldtrip”.  SORF is a summer research program sponsored by NIH grant and takes highly motivated and qualified medical students from around the country to participate in summer research projects at CHLA or Keck.  Through 1 hour of introductory lecture and another hour of Q&A and department tour, Dr. Ye and Dr. Park were able to introduce the field of radiation oncology to approximately 20 exceptional medical students early in medical school.

May 2025

Elizabeth Zhang-Velten, MD, PhD – featured in the article “What is Radiation for Cancer?” that has been shared on our social media channels.

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Eric Chang, MD – featured in the video “When is radiation therapy the right choice” has recently posted on our Social media channels. Please see links below.

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Congratulations Joshua Schiff, MD – Dr. Schiff, co-author, of the abstract titled “DE-escalated Conformal Radiation Expedited Sequentially with Chemotherapy for locally advanced ENDOmetrial cancer (DECRESCENDO) – NCT04386993” was awarded for scoring in the top 5% of ESTRO 2025 submitted abstracts.

Congratulations Lijun Ma, PhD – Dr. Ma was conferred the designation of Fellow of the American College of Radiology at its annual meeting in Washington DC this past weekend, May 4, 2025. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Ma on this honor.

April 2025

Congratulations to Arthur Olch, PhD, FAAPM – Arthur Olch’s work has been recognized by Wiley as top viewed article titled “A Comprehensive Review of 30 years of Pediatric Clinical Trial Radiotherapy Dose Constraints” in Pediatric Blood & Cancer.

May Lin Tao, MD – Congratulations on being recognized as a Los Angeles Business Journal 2025 Woman of Influence in Healthcare. The issue is now available online. Link to Article

Congratulations, Lauren Lukas, MD – Dr. Lukas treated our first VMAT Total lymphoid irradiation case at Norris using this specialized technique. This is our first case in collaboration with the USC Norris Blood and Marrow Transplant Program to treat mycosis fungoides with a conditioning regimen of total skin electron beam therapy, total lymphoid irradiation, and antithymocyte globulin (TSEBT-TLI-ATG) prior to allogeneic stem cell transplant. Many thanks to Dr. Salim Balik for all his work on the VMAT TLI planning technique.

First week of Newport Beach – Since opening Monday 3/31, Newport Beach has already seen the first consult and has a new start this Monday, April 7.

March 2025

Newport Beach update – We are excited to share that we passed our inspection with CDPH yesterday and licenses are effective immediately. We will have our physicians staffed starting Monday March 31st and officially open to the public. Elizabeth Zhang-Velten, MD and Hirsch Matani, MD will be our two physicians at Newport Beach, and Eric Chang, MD will be serving as interim Medical Director. We are excited for this new venture and to partner with our USC Med Oncs. in Newport Beach and Irvine in addition to other referring providers in the community.

New residency program members – We are pleased to announce that Dr. Om Sakhalkar of Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University and Dr. Swati Vanaparthy of MediCiti Institute of Medical Sciences have matched into our Radiation Oncology residency program starting on July 1, 2026.

Diane Ling, MD – Coauthored the new ASTRO Rectal Cancer guideline. Link to ASTRO Rectal Cancer guideline

107^th Annual Meeting of American Radium Society – This year’s Annual Meeting of the ARS (the oldest oncology meeting in the United States) will be held in Seattle, WA at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on April 3-6^th, 2025. Dr. Chang will be the presiding President of the American Radium Society. Seven members of USC Radiation oncology will be representing by attending the meeting, five members will be making scientific presentations in both oral and poster format from: Dr. Hye Ri Han, Dr. Justin Park, Dr. Christine Yang, Dr. Brittney Chau, and Dr. Lijun Ma. Dr. Ye will be attending and representing Keck Medicine of USC by serving as ARS AUC Breast Committee member. Let’s cheer them on and give them our support!!!!!

Congratulations to Drs. May Lin Tao, MD and Dr. Jason Ye, MD – As recently presented at our weekly chart rounds, Dr. Tao and Dr. Ye are treating our department’s first small batch of benign diseases like osteoarthritis, plantar fasciitis, etc. with Low Dose Radiation Therapy (LDRT).

Drs. Elizabeth Zhang-Velten, MD and Hirsch Matani, MD are leading the way in terms of developing marketing brochures to increase awareness of LDRT for benign disease in the community.

Drs. Hye Ri Han, MD and Diane Ling, MD – Coauthored the article “Can We Have the Best of Both Worlds? Considerations for Combining Oncoplastic Reconstruction with Partial Breast Irradiation” feature.  Link to Abstract

Drs. Lauren Lukas, MD and Hualin Zhang, PhD – Coauthored a new abstract publication titled “Immune Effects of Spatially Fractionated Radiation Therapy in Triple Negative Breast Cancer”.

Drs. Lauren Lukas, MD;  Hualin Zhang, PhD; and Zhengzheng Xu, PhD– Coauthored a new abstract publication titled “Feasibility of a Lead FRID Collimator for Electron GRID Therapy”

Drs. Hye Ri Han, MD; Hualin Zhang, PhD; and Lauren Lukas, MD – Coauthored a new abstract publication titled  “Threshold Dose in Spatially Fractionated Radiation Therapy for Preclinical Triple-Negative Breast Cancer”

Joshua Schiff, MD, PhD – Senior coauthor of a new publication titled “Workflow considerations for implementing a cone-beam CT-guided adaptive radiotherapy program” published in Applied Radiation Oncology.  Link to Article

Drs. Arthur Olch, PhD; Hualin Zhang, PhD; and Kenneth Wong, MD – coauthored a new abstract publication titled “ShotCaller: An Automated Target Placement Algorithm to Streamline Spatially Fractioned Radiation Therapy Treatment Planning”, about software to assist in SFRT treatment planning.

May Lin Tao, MD – Dr. Tao was featured in the article “Radiation Oncology: Leading Teams in Technology, Training and Beyond” on Keck Medicine Physician Hub site. Link to Article

Arthur Olch, PhD, FAAPM – Congratulations to Dr. Olch, who will be granted emeritus status upon his retirement by USC, effective July 1, 2025. This prestigious honor signifies honorable retirement from his assigned duties. This award is a testament to his unwavering service and is a well-deserved recognition of your contributions. We eagerly anticipate your continued presence in our academic community.

February 2025

Eric Chang, MD, FARS, FASTRO – Dr. Chang’s article “ A Personalized Approach to Spinal Cord Ependymoma,” is now available online.Link to Article

Drs. Frances Chow, MD & Elizabeth Zhang-Velten, MD – Big thank you to both for speaking on behalf of USC Brain Tumor Center and USC Comprehensive Cancer Center with Cancer Network on research and Clinical trials Keck Medicine is leading in this space. (Feb 17) Link to Q&A. Another interview, highlighting Keck’s ongoing research, a clinical trial studying aerosolized medicine to treat astrocytoma and meningioma, and another studying the efficacy of an individualized vaccine to treat glioblastoma. (Feb18) Link to Interview.

May Lin Tao, MD, MSHS – Dr. Tao has treated the department’s first two osteoarthritis patients with low dose radiation therapy in the community based on ASTRO and German guidelines. Congratulations to her on breaking new ground for RT indications at Keck Medicine of USC!!!!

Eric L. Chang MD FARS, FACR, FASTRO – Named as Top Radiation Oncologist for 2025 by Castle Connolly.  These Oncologist represent the top 7% of all U.S. practicing physicians, and are best-in-class healthcare providers, embodying excellence in clinical care as well as interpersonal skills. Link to Caste Connolly profile.

January 2025

Lijun Ma, PhD – Has been ranked #1 for Radiosurgical specialty on experscape.com and ranked 23 among all Medical Physicist: worldwide for specialty experts

Lijun Ma, PhD – Has been elected as a Fellow of American College of Radiology ( FACR)

Multiple Faculty –  Drs. Lauren Lukas, Jason Ye, Kenneth Wong, Hye Ri Han, and Hualin Zhang along with colleagues from Pathology and Medical Oncology recently had an article titled “Targeting EZH2 to mitigate immune checkpoint resistance in ARID1A-deficient triple-negative breast cancer” published in Advances in Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine.

December 2024

Dr. Zhaoyang Fan, PHD –  Recently had an article title “Interleaved flow‐sensitive dephasing (iFSD): Toward enhanced blood flow suppression and preserved T₁ weighting and overall signals in 3D TSE‐based neuroimaging in Magnetic Resonance in Medicine” published online.

Link to article: http://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.30391

Dr. Eric Chang – Dr. Chang’s new 2nd Edition Book Adult CNS Radiation Oncology has been published as a definitive textbook (850 pages) on brain tumors.

Link to Article: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-67878-3

Dr. Eric Chang – Had an article published in Cancers that he contributed to, “The Role of CT and MR Imaging in Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy of the Spine: From Patient Selection and Treatment Planning to Post-Treatment Monitoring.”

Link to Article:https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/16/21/3692__;!!JkGBRS3n8cDS!h2wyXwCmr_JQEO0VoB-                     8W2cNHJlK45ISm7PcQFLAG8D6-zV8MpB3HGm4qNWdQeJ6sXYiCfUOqet5TZHAfOA$

Dr. Eric Chang – Dr. Chang recently had an article he co-authored, published online titled “An Update to the American Radium Society’s Appropriate Use Criteria of Lower Grade Gliomas: Integration of IDH Inhibitors.”

Link to Article: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1k8o8cA0-IfeC

Hualin Zhang, PhD – Was awarded the Fellow of American Association of Physicists in Medicine (FAAPM)

Hualin Zhang, PhD – Had a new SFRT paper titled is ” Optimizing GRID and Lattice Spatially Fractionated Radiation Therapy: Innovative Strategies for Radioresistant and Bulky Tumor Management” published in the Journal of Seminars in Radiation Oncology

 Hualin Zhang, PhD – Had another new SFRT paper published titled The Radiosurgery Society Working Groups on GRID, LATTICE, Microbeam, and FLASH Radiotherapies: 2022 – 2023 Advancements Symposium and Subsequent Progress Made”, Pract Radiat Oncol. 2024 Oct 22: S1879. doi: 10.1016/j.prro.2024 .09.015.

Phuong Dang and Julie Shen – Our medical physics resident, Dr. Phuong Dang, won third place in the residency/Post Doctoral category at the AAPM Southern California Chapter Norm Baily Student competition. The event had 8 industry sponsorships, Dr. Zada was the keynote speaker, and event was organized by our Dr. Julie Shen.

November 2024

GO2 Foundation Walk – On October 12, 2024, Dr. Ye joined the USC/Norris Cancer Center Team at the Annual GO2 SoCal Lung Cancer 5k Walk/Run. This year, the team raised over $4,000 in support of lung cancer care and research and won third place in fundraising efforts (beating City of Hope!).

Khoi Huynh, PhD – Dr. Kho Huynh, post graduate, has secured his first grant. The award is the Margaret Kersten Ponty Endowed Post doctoral Fellowship award in oncology Research at the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and will help support ongoing research efforts in Dr. Modrek’s lab

Drs. Eric Chang and Jason Ye – Were awarded an exact Sciences Grant for $20,000 to help fund the annual Breast Symposium

Aram Modrek and Syeda Narjis Fatima – Both Drs. Modrek and Fatima were awarded American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grants (ACS-IRG) by USC.

-Dr. Modrek will be utilizing the funds to conduct research Single-Molecule Techniques to Investigate DNA Damage induced Epigenetic Reprogramming.

-Dr. Fatima will be using the funds to research Deep Learning based Integrated Image Synthesis for Adaptive Radiation Therapy and Automated Treatment Planning Systems