Willis Knighton Cancer Center Selected to Host Proton Therapy Cooperative Group North America Meeting
Ten years after bringing Proteus® ONE, the world’s first compact image guided scanning proton therapy system, to Shreveport-Bossier, Willis Knighton Cancer Center will welcome another first.
The Particle Therapy Cooperative Group – North America (PTCOG NA) will hold its annual meeting in Shreveport-Bossier in November 2025. PTCOG NA was created to enhance collaboration, scientific exchange, treatment guidelines and education for particle (proton) therapy. It will be the first time the international group has utilized a cancer center and city our size, said Lane R. Rosen, MD, medical director of radiation oncology at Willis Knighton Health.
The conference has always been held at the largest academic centers in the country in cities such as New York, Miami, Houston and Chicago. The meeting draws radiation oncologists, physicists, dosimetrists, and other specialists from leading cancer centers Memorial Sloan Kettering, Mayo Clinic, MD Anderson, Massachusetts General Hospital and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, among others. All will be represented at the Shreveport meeting, Dr. Rosen said.
Having the PTCOG NA meeting in Shreveport is a testament to the Willis Knighton radiation oncology leadership position in proton therapy. “When Willis Knighton Cancer Center began treating patients with proton therapy in 2014, it was years ahead of most sites in the country,” Dr. Rosen said. It is still the only proton therapy center in Louisiana and has served as an international training and education site for proton therapy. The department was the recipient of the George Starkschall Award by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine for an article describing the commissioning of Proteus® ONE.
“We are very excited and proud for our whole team,” Dr. Rosen said. “Having this prestigious meeting at our center is the perfect celebration of a decade of proton therapy.”
Gazi B. Zibari, MD, and Neeraj Singh, MD, Named to Posts with Two National Transplant Organizations
Two physicians at Willis Knighton John C. McDonald Transplant Center – Drs. Gaza B. Zibari and Neeraj Singh – continue to share their passion for altruistic work through appointments to leadership positions with several leading national transplant organizations.
Dr. Zibari, transplant center director, is the new president of Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (AHPBA), the American chapter of the International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association. He previously served the group as president and treasurer. The nonprofit aims to improve human suffering caused by HPB disorders through education, training, innovation, research and patient care.
In addition, Dr. Zibari has also been elected chair of the International Relations Committee for the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. The committee builds international relationships through clinical and scientific exchange to optimize transplant access, organ donation and solid organ transplant care worldwide.
“I feel it is my moral obligation to reciprocate what America has done for me by helping our community and the less fortunate all over the world,” said Dr. Zibari, who came to the United States in May 1976 as a refugee from Iraq. Since then, he has worked at the local, national and international levels to impact patient care, surgical medical education and humanitarian medical outreach.
Dr. Singh, medical director of kidney and pancreas transplant, is chair of the American Society of Transplantation (AST) Kidney Pancreas Committee. He works on issues affecting kidney and pancreas transplantation as well as guides and monitors progress in achieving initiatives to improve patient care, transplant education and policies. He also is co-chair of the organization’s Medical Director Committee.
As Region 3 representative on the Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network Pancreas Transplantation Committee, his goal is to improve the health outcomes of pancreas and islet transplant recipients, among other initiatives
Dr. Singh was instrumental in drafting the application for accreditation by the American Society of Nephrology-American Society of Transplantation Council for Graduate Medical Education Task Force. The task force vice chair said accreditation will lead to a better recognition of the specialty, standardize training across the country and improve the quality of care provided patients before and after transplant.
Both doctors credit support of Willis Knighton leadership and transplant center colleagues with enabling them to share their time and expertise nationally and internationally.
Christopher Chandler, MD, joins Willis Knighton John C. McDonald Transplant Center
Christopher S. Chandler, MD, has joined Willis Knighton John C. McDonald Transplant Center, located at Willis Knighton North. In addition to liver, kidney and pancreas transplant, he offers surgery on these organs as well as the gallbladder and bile duct. He welcomes patients and accepts most insurance plans at the transplant center and in the advanced surgery clinic.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and psychology at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, Dr. Chandler received a medical degree from Stony Brook University School of Medicine. He
completed a general surgery residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in multiorgan abdominal transplant and hepatobiliary surgery at University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center.
Using the latest techniques and technology, Dr. Chandler takes a patient centered, multidisciplinary approach that focuses on achieving positive outcomes for his patients. His office is located on the 4th floor of the Diagnostic and Surgical Building at 2751 Albert Bicknell Drive in Shreveport.