Henry S. Park1, Jin Ye Yeo2
1Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; 2JTD Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company
Correspondence to: Jin Ye Yeo. JTD Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company. Email: jtd@amepc.org
Expert Introduction
Dr. Henry S. Park (Figure 1) is a board-certified radiation oncologist who serves as associate professor, vice chair for clinical research, and chief of thoracic radiotherapy for the Department of Therapeutic Radiology at the Yale School of Medicine. For the Yale Cancer Center, he is an assistant medical director of the Clinical Trials Office, through which he leads the radiation oncology committee and is associate leader of the lung clinical research team. For the medical school's Office of Student Affairs, he is the head of one of the six advisory colleges. He has previously held roles as the associate residency program director, medical student electives director, and continuing medical education director for radiation oncology.
Figure 1 Dr Henry S. Park
Dr. Park received his undergraduate degree from Yale College, master's degree from the Harvard School of Public Health, and medical doctorate from the Yale School of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine internship at Harvard Medical School's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center before returning to Yale New Haven Hospital for his residency and chief residency in radiation oncology.
Dr. Park subspecializes in radiation therapy for lung cancer and head and neck cancer, and he maintains a busy clinical practice in New Haven. He leads a wide-ranging research program in clinical trials, real-world evidence, and health services. He has co-authored over 135 peer-reviewed original research articles and 45 reviews, book chapters, invited editorials, and practice guidelines. He serves as an oral and written board examiner for the American Board of Radiology and as an active committee member for the American Society for Radiation Oncology, American Radium Society, SWOG, ECOG-ACRIN, and NRG. He has been honored with multiple awards for his contributions to patient care, clinical research, and medical education.
Interview
JTD: What drove you to pursue a dual path in radiation oncology and public health?
Dr. Park: I was already in medical school and planning to be an oncologist treating patients with cancer. I then chose to complete a master’s degree in public health due to my desire to better understand how to do high-quality research on data derived from large and diverse populations. My concentration was on quantitative methods, which included biostatistics, epidemiology, and decision science. This background has served me well in my career as a clinical scientist, data analyst, writer, reviewer, and editor.
JTD: Would you like to give us a general picture of your publication area in radiation oncology?
Dr. Park: My research interests span several avenues. One is on patterns of radiotherapy delivery in this country, which can be influenced by factors such as age, race, socioeconomic status, and healthcare system incentives. I am also interested in real-world studies regarding the effectiveness of novel radiation therapy techniques, technologies, and dose-fractionation schemes in combination with modern systemic therapy agents, especially in lung cancer. I have been pursuing both investigator-initiated trials as well as larger cooperative group trials to gather prospective data on optimizing lung cancer treatment. My group has also conducted population-based studies on opioid use, misuse, and overdoses among patients with cancer as well as opioid prescribing patterns among oncologists.
JTD: Yale New Haven recently celebrated the grand opening of SCINTIX biology-guided radiotherapy (BgRT), delivered by the RefleXion X1 unit. Could you share more about how this new technology provides an edge over current technologies in treating metastatic lung and bone cancers?
Dr. Park: At Yale, we are very excited to have access to SCINTIX technology. The basic concept is that we can use the biology over the tumor itself from its PET signal to guide the radiation beamlets. One potential advantage in the lung (for both tumors that originate from the lung or metastasize to the lung) is that less normal lung tissue may be exposed to the high-dose treatment without the need to place an external fiducial marker into the tumor, since the radiation will follow the tumor as it moves with normal breathing. Some bone tumors are also difficult to see and match to on normal CT images, so using the PET signal may be useful for those as well. Eventually, we hope that the use of SCINTIX can be expanded beyond lungs and bones (which are currently the only FDA-approved indications) to other moving organs such as the liver and adrenal glands, and that radiotracers other than FDG-18 can be used for standard PET scans to specifically track and treat certain types of tumors. Our long-term goal is to treat multiple tumors simultaneously and expand the number of metastases that can be treated with radiotherapy in a single session, but the technology is not quite ready for that yet.
JTD: How has your experience been using this new technology? Can you share any examples or case studies where it has impacted your patients?
Dr. Park: We have been using the RefleXion X1 machine since April 2023 for standard IMRT and SBRT cases throughout the body, but it was not until March 2024 that we were ready to treat our first batch of SCINTIX BgRT patients with tumors in the lungs and bones. It is too early to see results, but the treatments have gone very well so far and we have been able to spare more lung volume from high-dose treatment than we would have done otherwise.
JTD: Since radiation therapy has certain well-known risks, is it common for you to encounter patients who are resistant to radiation therapy? How do you approach these patients?
Dr. Park: Some of our patients are hesitant to undergo radiation therapy for multiple reasons. They may have had family or friends who have undergone radiation therapy in the past and had complications, or they may not have had any experience but imagine that it could be more damaging than it is. We spend much of our consultations listening to the reasons for their concerns and explaining how radiation works, how the benefits and side effects are different for each patient in a fairly predictable fashion, and how radiation techniques have become drastically safer over the years due to advances in clinical research.
JTD: Other than being a co-author of more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, you also took up various professional roles. How do you manage your time and energy?
Dr. Park: I thoroughly enjoy my roles in patient care and leadership in clinical, research, and educational arenas. I find it very important to take excellent care of my patients but also to fill key knowledge gaps in the field and to provide support for colleagues, residents, and students. My wife (also an academic physician) is incredibly supportive of my varied endeavors, and our two young children and dog give us renewed perspective, energy, and balance. We also enjoy playing and listening to music and sports as well as spending time with friends.
JTD: How has your experience been as an Editorial Board Member of JTD?
Dr. Park: I have enjoyed being an editorial board member of JTD for the past several years. Helping to sustain its high-quality work, especially in my area of interest in lung cancer, has been quite satisfying.
JTD: As an Editorial Board Member of JTD, what is your expectation for JTD?
Dr. Park: I expect that JTD will continue to boldly explore different perspectives and topics while prioritizing robust methodology. While we have made a lot of progress in lung cancer treatments and outcomes over a relatively short period of time, we have a long way to go before lung cancer no longer remains the leading cause of cancer death among men and women in the world. Though surgery, radiation therapy, and systemic therapy like immunotherapy and targeted therapy are all steadily improving, bold ideas will need to be pursued to improve prevention, cure, and prolongation of life and quality-of-life. We can only get where we want if we can continue to perform and publish useful and innovative clinical research.