Dr. Jeffrey Demanes, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center member and director of the high-dose-rate brachytherapy program at UCLA, has been selected to receive the Ulrich Henschke Award in recognition of his dedication and commitment to the field of brachytherapy for more than three decades.
The award is the highest honor that the American Brachytherapy Society (ABS) can bestow on a practitioner, awarded for contributions to the field of brachytherapy, the radiation therapy community and the ABS. Demanes will accept the award at the World Congress Brachytherapy Conference in San Francisco on behalf of the American Brachytherapy Society later this month.
Brachytherapy is a type of advanced cancer treatment in which radioactive seeds are surgically implanted in and around the tumor to shrink it or kill the cancer cells. More localized and precise than conventional radiation treatment, this approach prevents damage to healthy tissue surrounding the tumor.
Demanes, a professor of brachytherapy in the department of radiation oncology at UCLA, joined UCLA in 2010. He is widely recognized for pioneering the use of high-dose-rate brachytherapy in many types of cancers, including prostate, head and neck, breast, GI and gynecologic. He also founded the California Endocurietherapy (CET) Center, the first medical practice in the United States devoted solely to this specialized type of radiation therapy. Since the CET first opened in 1981, Demanes has performed more than 10,000 surgical radiation implants.
