"It’s a real privilege to be at a world-class facility with physicians who are experts in their field."

Mark McDonald, MD

Position:

Radiation Oncologist

Specialty:

Tumors of the central nervous system, head and neck; and pediatric cancers

As the son of an oncologist and an oncology nurse, Mark McDonald grew up listening to his parents tell stories about the struggles and victories they shared with their patients. Now, Dr. McDonald is the story-teller.

“Having my parents relate stories about what they did for patients had a profound impact on me,” says Dr. McDonald, IU Health Proton Therapy Center physician and assistant professor of radiation oncology at Indiana University School of Medicine. “They instilled in me a strong sense of what a privilege it is to practice medicine and to take care of people.”

Today, Dr. McDonald considers it a privilege to be both a doctor and part of the treatment team at the IU Health Proton Therapy Center using state-of-the-art technology to treat cancer patients.

“We are very fortunate to have the physicians, medical physicists, dosimetrists, nurses and therapists that we have at the IU Health Proton Therapy Center,” says Dr. McDonald. “It is a great team.”

Dr. McDonald completed his internship and residency training at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, which was an early adopter of new technologies including image-guided treatment and intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). As a result, Dr. McDonald worked extensively with the most advanced forms of X-ray radiation, earning awards from the Radiological Society of North America and the American Radium Society for his research on IMRT treatment of breast and head and neck cancers.

“IMRT is an impressive technology,” says Dr. McDonald, “But proton beam therapy is leaps and bounds above it.”

To illustrate his point, he describes a CT scan of a patient’s tumor overlaid with two treatment plans – one using IMRT and the other using proton beam therapy – that ‘map’ areas that will receive radiation. The proton therapy map shows a treatment area that is tightly focused on the tumor with a small margin around it, while the IMRT map shows radiation unnecessarily exposing a larger area surrounding the tumor.

“There’s no comparison in amount of normal tissue being radiated,” he says. “Proton therapy dramatically reduces the exposure of normal tissues to radiation.”

Having access to a variety of cancer treatment options – including both IMRT and proton therapy – is one of the things Dr. McDonald appreciates about his dual position at the Indiana University School of Medicine and MPRI.

“It is great to have the full arsenal of tools available to treat patients appropriately,” he says.

Dr. McDonald believes that the percentage of cancer patients treated with proton radiation will grow as the technology continues to evolve. For his part, he is focusing on increasing collaboration with Indiana University to explore areas where proton therapy will help improve cure rates, quality of life or both. He is particularly interested in the role of proton radiation in patients with tumors of the brain or head and neck, including treatment of children.

“Proton therapy is the most compelling treatment choice for many children who need radiation since they are so sensitive to radiation and can have more deleterious effects,” he says. “Anything we can do to minimize radiation exposure in children should be done, and proton therapy is often our best tool.”

The long- and short-term effects of radiation to the brain and cranial nerves also make proton therapy an ideal choice for treating cancers at the base of the skull or near the brain stem or spinal cord.

“With proton radiation, we can often take the untreatable or incurable and make it curable, and that’s the most exciting thing we can do in oncology,” says Dr. McDonald.

It also makes for a great story.

Stats

• BA, summa cum laude in English, Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio
• MD, The Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health, Columbus, Ohio
• Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology, Indiana University School of Medicine
• Board certified in radiation oncology
• Engaged in clinical research with a focus on proton radiation and advanced imaging technologies
• Member, American College of Radiology, Appropriateness Criteria Committee for Head and Neck Cancer
• Member, American College of Radiology, Appropriateness Criteria Committee for Brain Metastases
• Member, American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO)
• Member, Children’s Oncology Group