Southern Cancer Care would like to introduce Kendell Dowton a Radiation Therapist at St George Cancer Care Centre.

Kendell is part of a team trying to improve the care of lung cancer patients. Patients with lung cancer often have multiple medical issues that can affect their lung function aside from the cancer itself. As such, it is important to preserve as much healthy lung tissue as possible during their radiation treatment. This provides patients with the best chance of survival whilst maintaining their quality of life.

The team have developed a workflow to treat lung Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiotherapy (SABR) for patients diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer. This technique aims to reduce damage to normal surrounding lung tissue whilst providing very high local control rates. They have researched and validated their technique and recently presented their results at the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) Congress in Vienna, Austria from 2 – 6 May 2025.

Kendell is the principal investigator of this multi-institutional study which involves collaboration with Westmead and Canberra Hospitals.

Kendell was successful in obtaining a mentorship with Dr Tine Bjoern Nielsen at the Odense University Hospital in Denmark. Odense University Hospital pioneered this novel technique and Kendell had the opportunity to see the entire process of how patients were selected, planned and treated for their lung cancer.