Several faculty from the Department of Radiology reached out to Vanderbilt medical students in an effort to create interest in interventional radiology and interventional oncology. As a result, Mary Ellen Koran, PhD, in the Medical Scientist Training Program rounded a group of medical students and formed the Interventional Radiology Interest Group (IRIG).

Twenty retiring faculty members were recognized during Vanderbilt’s Commencement ceremony May 9, when the university honored their years of service and bestowed on them the title of emeritus or emerita faculty. Two of them included Radiology faculty, Thomas S. Dina and Richard M. Heller, Professors of Radiology and Radiological Sciences.

Noninvasive biomarkers that detect programmed cell death – apoptosis – would be valuable for predicting early responses to anticancer therapies and for improving drug discovery. Potential targets for molecular imaging of apoptosis include caspase enzymes, which play essential roles in apoptotic signaling pathways. H.

Eric Liu, M.D., assistant professor of Surgery and Radiology and Radiological Sciences, is the principal investigator at Vanderbilt for the trial, dubbed NETTER-1. “Neuroendocrine tumors are a difficult type of cancer to take care of because they have unusual traits,” Liu said. “Not only do these tumors grow but they also secrete hormones, which can create lots of symptoms. They can be quite difficult to diagnose and require a multi-modal approach to care.”

Daniel Arteaga, B.A., Class of 2015 Vanderbilt Medical School, has recently been named a recipient of the Research Medical Student Grant awarded by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). This grant is awarded on an annual basis to medical students pursuing research in the field of radiology.

Adam Guttentag, M.D., has joined the faculty in the Chest and Body Imaging sections of the Department of Radiology effective April 1, 2014. Dr. Guttentag graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1985. He served a transitional year at Mercy Hospital Pittsburgh, PA, and was a resident in Diagnostic Radiology at Boston University Medical Center, graduating in 1990. He was a Thoracic Radiology fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1990-91.  He was given board certification in Diagnostic Radiology by the ABR in 1990.

On March 8, 2014, past and current residents of the Vanderbilt Radiology Residency Program gathered to honor their mentor on the eve of his retirement after 19 years as program director. Dr. Thomas S. Dina joined the faculty at Vanderbilt in 1994 and became program director in 1995; his impending retirement caps a 40-year career in neuroradiology.  Over the span of his career at Vanderbilt, Dr. Dina has trained 165 residents and 32 fellows in neuroradiology.

At the 2014 Symposium on Clinical Interventional Oncology (CIO), Dr. Dan Brown, presented information about therapies for neuroendocrine tumors. Interventional Oncology 360 interviewed Dr. Brown about the interventional oncology therapies provided at Vanderbilt University as well as his CIO presentation. Q: How did you become involved in the interventional oncology specialty?

The Vanderbilt Breast Center at Vanderbilt Health One Hundred Oaks has added tomosynthesis mammography, an imaging technique that creates a three-dimensional image of breast tissue, to help screen patients for breast cancer. While a standard mammogram machine takes a static picture from above the breast, the tomosynthesis tube moves over the breast in an arc.