NRG Oncology Appoints Chair and Vice Chair of Radiation Oncology Committee

October 11, 2022 —  NRG Oncology (NRG) has announced that they have appointed a new Chair and Vice Chair to the organization’s Radiation Oncology Committee. 

Evan Wuthrick, MD, was appointed as the Chair of the NRG Radiation Oncology Committee. Dr. Wuthrick previously served as the Vice Chair of the committee and will lead this committee with the experience he has garnered from his long-standing involvement within the committee. Dr. Wuthrick also serves as a committee member for the NRG Gastrointestinal Colorectal as well as Non-colorectal Cancer Core Committees, co-Chairs the NRG Center for Innovation in Radiation Oncology (CIRO) program, and is the NRG New Investigator Liaison representing the NRG Gastrointestinal (Colorectal) Cancer Committee where he helps to guide and direct newer investigators within the NRG network. 

In addition to his in-depth involvement with NRG, Dr. Wuthrick is the Section Head for Cutaneous Radiation Oncology and an Associate Member of Radiation Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center. His clinical and research interests are centered around gastrointestinal and cutaneous malignancies as well as therapeutics, radiogenomics, advanced technology in radiation oncology, and early phase clinical trials. Dr. Wuthrick serves on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Melanoma Committee, Uveal Melanoma Committee, and Brain Metastasis Subcommittee, and the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) Melanoma Committee Radiation Oncology Liaison. In his previous tenure at Ohio State University, Dr. Wuthrick was also the institutional primary investigator for several RTOG studies, including RTOG 0436, RTOG 0822, RTOG 0926, RTOG 0933, RTOG 1010, and RTOG 1112. 

Charles B. Simone, II, MD, FACRO, was selected as Vice Chair of the NRG Radiation Oncology Committee, replacing Dr. Wuthrick in the position. Dr. Simone previously served as a committee member on the Radiation Oncology Committee and currently serves as Chair of the NRG Particle Therapy Working Group, and member of the NRG Lung Cancer Core Committee, the NRG Medical Physics Subcommittee, the NRG Proton Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy Working Group, the NRG FLASH Working Group, and the NRG Spatially Fractionated Radiation Therapy (SFRT) Working Group. He is the Principal Investigator of the SWOG/NRG joint lung cancer study S1914 for induction/consolidation atezolizumab and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) versus SBRT alone in high-risk, early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. He is a leading accruer to the NRG-RTOG 1308 clinical trial. Dr. Simone is also Co-Chair of several NRG clinical trials, including NRG-RTOG 1308, NRG-LU002, NRG-LU004, and NRG-LU006, and he is the Principal Investigator of the developing phase III NRG-LU008 trial for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. 

Dr. Simone is a Professor and Member in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as well as a Research Professor and Chief Medical Officer of the New York Proton Center (NYPC). Prior to his experience at the NYPC, he was the Chief of Thoracic Oncology Service at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Penn Mesothelioma and Pleural Program, and the Director of Clinical Research and Operations in the Department of Radiation Oncology at University of Pennsylvania, as well as the Medical Director of the Maryland Proton Treatment Center and the Chair of the Clinical Research Committee, Proton Therapy Fellowship Director, and Director of the Stereotactic Radiation Therapy Program for the University of Maryland’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

“NRG is excited by the future direction of our radiation oncology-based efforts with the new roles assumed by Drs. Wuthrick and Simone. Our group eagerly awaits the new ideas and strategies that stem from this change and building off the foundation already established by NRG and our Radiation Oncology Committee,” stated Quynh-Thu Le, MD, FACR, FASTRO, an NRG Oncology Group Chair and the Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Stanford University. 

Drs. Wuthrick and Simone will join current Vice Chair, Dr. Ivy Peterson, in providing continued guidance and coordination to the group’s radiation oncology-related activities, developing short- and long-term strategic plans to address the research interests of the radiation oncology community. 

“NRG also extends our deep appreciation to Dr. Jeff Michalski, who previously served as the Chair of the Radiation Oncology Committee. We are grateful for all of progress achieved by this committee under his leadership and guidance, and we look forward to his continued involvement in our organization,” added Dr. Le. 

For more information: www.nrgoncology.org