Dr. Tod Speer is a clinical assistant professor in the department of human oncology at the University Of Wisconsin School Of Medicine. He received his medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine where he studied under Dr. Larry Einhorn, whose mentorship strongly influenced his interest in oncology. He completed his residency at the University of Florida under the guidance of Dr. Rodney Million. From this training, he developed a strong interest in head and neck cancer and the impact of altered fractionation regimens on tumor biology. He holds memberships in ASTRO, ACRO, SNM, ASCO and RTOG. In addition to his clinical practice, his academic interest includes basic research, preclinical and clinical applications of targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT). He is committed to the training of residents by teaching TRT and related aspects of low dose rate radiation for the radiobiology course at the University of Wisconsin.
Dr. Speer believes that TRT is an exceedingly promising form of cancer therapy that is currently in its infancy. Unfortunately, this form of therapy has not been fully embraced by the major medical disciplines. His goal is to unite radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and surgical oncologists, such that they all work in unison to maximize research and protocol development. Dr. Speer was a member of the initial STaRT task group (2004-2007) and currently co-chairs the ASTRO TRT group. He is the lead editor for a new text book on TRT and is currently working with authors at a national and international level. He is the principal investigator on an industry sponsored trial using 90-Y-labled ant-MUC1 antibodies to treat advanced pancreatic cancer, at the University of Wisconsin. He is a reviewer for the IJROBP and Cancer Biotherapy and Radiopharmaceuticals with expertise in therapies related to the delivery of radiolabeled constructs.
He is a strong advocate for continued clinical use of the FDA approved ant-CD 20 antibody therapy for NHL. He recognizes the many barriers to full utilization of these therapies, as discussed in his recent publication (Speer T, Welsh J. Radioimmunotherapy Should Survive. Letter to the Editor. Clinical Advances in Hematology and Oncology, Vol. 6, Issue 4, April 2008). In an effort to maintain reasonable reimbursement, radiation safety, and appropriate level of participation by the respective medical disciplines, he has been appointed the Wisconsin State Captain for the ASTRO advocacy group.
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