John Crissman, MD, dean of the Wayne State University School of Medicine, has announced the appointment of Jeffrey Forman, MD, as chair of the school’s Department of Radiation Oncology. Dr. Forman has also been appointed specialist-in-chief of radiation oncology for the Detroit Medical Center.

The recipient of a number of honors for research and community service, Dr. Forman most recently was recognized by the Israel Cancer Association of Michigan for his contributions in the fight against cancer.

“We are thrilled to have someone of his caliber head the department,” Dr. Crissman said. “Dr. Forman is an accomplished researcher and clinician who is well respected in the field and in the community as a whole.”

Dr. Forman assumes leadership for a program that includes a faculty of 16 attending physicians, six residents, five cancer biologists and 12 medical physicists in three radiation oncology facilities at the Detroit Medical Center’s Gershenson Center, Sinai-Grace Hospital and Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital.

In addition, Dr. Forman recently completed an $8.5 million philanthropic drive to create the Lawrence & Idell Weisberg Cancer Center, a 19,000- square-foot outpatient radiation and chemotherapy treatment facility in Farmington Hills opening in August. He will serve as medical director.

Dr. Forman is an expert in the use of neutron therapy, a highly powerful form of radiation therapy in use at only one other facility in the United States. Combined with traditional photon therapy for cancers of the prostate and head and neck, neutron therapy has shown a distinct survival advantage.