IN ISRAEL
The Israeli Fellowship in Radiation Oncology

Radiation therapy plays a major role in the treatment of cancer. Most cancer
patients will undergo this type of treatment during the course of their illness. For every patient cured by drugs, four are cured by radiation therapy.

In Israel, training in radiation therapy is but a small part of a medical oncology
(i.e. chemotherapy) program. Not surprisingly, there are few highly trained radiation oncology specialists in Israel. As a consequence, Israeli radiation oncologists routinely treat up to four to five times more patients than their American counterparts — clearly an unmanageable load.

The University of Michigan Israeli Fellowship Program, initiated in 1993, has invited Israeli physicians to study and work beside the Department of Radiation Oncology’s world-class physician/scientists, gaining critical experience in ultra specialized radiation therapy, clinical protocols, laboratory research, and academic collaboration.

Current Israeli Fellows include: Aron Popovtzer, MD (’06-’08), a board certified head and neck surgeon who will be the first person in Israel specializing in the radiation treatment of head and neck tumors; Iris Gluck, MD (’06-’08), from Tel Hashomer Hospital outside of Tel Aviv; and Orit Gutfeld, M.D. of Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem.

AND EGYPT

This past spring, Dr. Mohamed Aboziada, a radiation oncologist from South Egypt Cancer Institute in Assiut, came to U-M to train with Dr. Avraham Eisbruch in the Department of Radiation. During his month-long stay, he focused on learning about the treatment of head and neck cancers. His visit was supported by the International Union Against Cancer.