Jeremy Brownstein
MD
Columbus, Ohio, United States
Jeremy Brownstein is a radiation oncologist who specializes in treating patients with thoracic malignancies like lung cancer, mesothelioma, and thymoma/thymic carcinoma. He is particularly interested in the applications of particle therapy to the treatment of these diseases and solid tumors in general. As opposed to photon radiation, particle therapy allows us to effectively treat cancers while exposing nearby critical organs to less radiation. This is because, unlike X-rays that largely pass through the body, protons can stop within the tumor we are targeting, thus eliminating the "exit dose.”
Although particle therapy has many advantages, it also has increased uncertainty. As James builds a state-of-the-art proton center over the coming years, he plans to utilize my education in physics, research in proton physics, and experience in the clinical applications of proton radiotherapy to help develop a framework that supports safe and effective treatment.
He is also interested in the application of radiation therapy to care for benign conditions. For example, he is working to develop a program that utilizes highly focused radiation to treat deadly cardiac arrhythmias that are refractory to both medications and conventional ablations techniques.
As a major academic medical center, many James cancer patients are referred from other institutions due to their rare diagnoses, very advanced disease, or complicated medical history. Fortunately, The James thoracic oncology team is well-equipped to assist in these difficult situations. Many of his patients have advanced lung cancer that would ordinarily be treated with concurrent chemotherapy and radiation but is unable to tolerate chemotherapy due to other medical problems. In these cases, he has been developing techniques with image-guided hypofractionated radiation therapy that allows him to safely intensify their radiation treatment to assure that they can still receive aggressive curative treatment. Additionally, the thoracic oncology group at The James has a wide variety of clinical trials that are available, allowing our patients to be at the forefront of cancer treatment.
