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Presidential Citations
Thomas F. Pajak, MD
Thomas F. Pajak, Ph.D., served as the RTOG
Group (lead) Statistician for 23 years, from
1981 to 2004. He continues to work with
RTOG investigators as a Senior Statistician.
Dr. Pajak has focused on head and neck
cancer clinical trials since his first day at RTOG. He was involved
in the design, conduct, and analyses of two RTOG landmark
studies: the laryngeal preservation trial and the postoperative
chemoradiation trial.
Dr. Pajak received his doctoral degree from the State University
of New York at Buffalo. While in the program, he worked as a
statistical intern in the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG)
Statistical Center at M. D. Anderson Cancer Hospital. After
earning his doctorate, Dr. Pajak worked as a statistician for
the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB), the Western
Cancer Study Group (WCSG), and the Cancer Center at the
Bowman Gray School of Medicine. In the late 1990s, Dr. Pajak
worked as the Group (lead) statistician with Dr. Samuel Wells
and other surgeons from the American College of Surgeons in
both creating a new surgical cooperative group (ACoSOG) and
obtaining the initial National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant to fund
its activities.
Besides being an RTOG Senior Statistician, Dr. Pajak is an
adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Radiation
Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, and has been
an editor on the American Editorial Board for the International
Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics since 1988. Dr.
Pajak serves on various data monitoring and safety boards and
is an external consultant for head and neck cancer trials. He also
serves as a reviewer or consultant for various NCI committees.
He is presently a member of the NCI steering committee
for head and neck trials. He also has served as the elected
spokesman for his fellow cooperative Group Statisticians.
While his publications have encompassed all major adult
cancers, his current research interests are head and neck
cancers, pathology, and tumor markers. Dr. Pajak has been
involved in research testing proposed pathology systems
and tumor markers to classify disease for their independent
prognostic value and then with implementing the markers in
clinical trials. Dr. Pajak is currently involved in designing trials
for patients with human papillomavirus-positive oropharyngeal
tumors. In particular, he is collaborating with clinicians and other
statisticians in defining a very favorable patient group in whom
de-intensified treatments can be tested against the standard of
care chemoradiation regimen.
Walter J. Curran, MD
Walter J. Curran was appointed Executive
Director of Winship Cancer Institute in
September, 2009. He joined Emory in
January, 2008, as the Lawrence W. Davis
Chair of Radiation Oncology and Chief
Medical Officer of Winship Cancer Institute.
Prior to joining Emory, Dr. Curran was Chairman of Radiation
Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. He currently serves as Group Chairman and
Principal Investigator of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group
(RTOG), a National Cancer Institute-funded cooperative group, a
position he has held since 1997.
Dr. Curran, who is a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished
Scholar, has been a principal investigator on several National
Cancer Institute grants and is considered an international expert
in the management of patients with locally advanced lung
cancer and malignant brain tumors. He has led several landmark
clinical and translational trials in both areas and is responsible
for defining a universally adopted staging system for patients
with malignant glioma. He has authored or co-authored more
than four hundred abstracts and scholarly papers, as well as
numerous presentations, reviews and book chapters. He has
been chairman or co-chairman of more than 40 clinical trials and
a reviewer for twelve national/international journals. He serves
as the Founding Secretary/Treasurer of the Coalition of Cancer
Cooperative Groups and a Board Member of the Georgia Center
for Oncology Research and Education (GA CORE). Dr. Curran
is the only radiation oncologist to serve as Director of a National
Cancer Institute Designated Cancer Center.
Dr. Curran is a Fellow in the American College of Radiology
and has been awarded honorary memberships in the European
Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology and the
Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology. In 2006, he was
named the leading radiation oncologist/cancer researcher in a
peer survey by the journal Medical Imaging. Under Dr. Curran’s
leadership Emory’s Radiation Oncology Department has been
recently selected as a “Top Five Radiation Therapy Centers
to Watch in 2009” by Imaging Technology News. This review
recognizes the most forward-thinking, U.S.-based cancer
treatment centers, which have adopted advanced technology to
optimize treatment and make a difference in patient care.
Dr. Curran graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College,
received his MD degree from the Medical College of Georgia
and is a Board Certified Radiation Oncologist. Curran completed
his residency in the Department of Radiation Therapy at the
University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and his internship
in internal medicine at Presbyterian University of Pennsylvania
Medical Center in Philadelphia. Chief Medical Officer, Emory
Winship Cancer Institute
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