• Publications
• Experience
• About

Professional Focus

Dr. Faddegon’s research goal is to improve accuracy and precision in radiotherapy through cost-effective solutions to improve the therapeutic ratio. This will allow for more aggressive treatment in sites where side effects, local control, and even metastases are a problem.  The National Institute of Health (NIH) has fully funded Dr. Faddegon's project to help establish Monte Carlo, a highly accurate method of radiation transport, as a critical tool in radiotherapy, including treatment planning. Related projects include adding electrons to intensity-modulated radiotherapy with x-rays, using Monte Carlo methods for dose calculation, and establishing fast means of dose calculation for depth penetration and output calculation using the accurate beam models developed for the NIH project. Dr. Faddegon is also working to establish image-guided radiotherapy with portal imaging for more precise targeting of tumors and avoidance of critical structures.
 
Dr. Faddegon’s clinical responsibility is physics support of linear accelerators (linacs). This includes management, installation, commissioning, maintenance and quality assurance (QA), along with supervision of engineers and physicists. At UCSF, Dr. Faddegon commissioned Total Body Irradiation on several linacs, developing the means to treat the whole body over a short distance (3 meters). He also developed new targets to resolve a water leakage problem, implemented high precision graticules for patient localization, commissioned a missing tissue compensator system, and determined the means to detect and correct defective circuitry he discovered in treatments using virtual wedges. He is currently working on implementing a new, more accurate and efficient system for electron output calculation. He routinely consults for Intraoperative Radiotherapy, special procedures, electron treatment, and dose calculation in complex treatments including those where dose delivery is influenced by air cavities, bone, and prosthesis.

Education

Professional Experience

Awards & Honors

Publications

B Palcic, B A Faddegon, B Jaggi, and L D Skarsgard. The Automated Low Dose Assay System for Survival Measurements of Mammalian Cells. In Vitro. J. of Tissue Culture Methods 8(3):103 (1983).

B Palcic, B A Faddegon, and L D Skarsgard. The Effect of Misonidazole as a Hypoxic Radiosensitizer at Low Dose. Radiation Research 100(2):340 (1984).

B A Faddegon and P M Pfalzner. Computer Aided Design and Verification of Megavoltage Tissue Compensators for Oblique Beams. Medical Physics, 15(5):757 (1988).

B A Faddegon. Pile-up Corrections in Pulsed-Beam Spectroscopy. Nucl. Inst. Meth., B51:431 (1990).

B A Faddegon, C K Ross, and D W O Rogers. Forward-Directed Bremsstrahlung of 10-30 MeV Electrons Incident on Thick Targets of Al and Pb. Medical Physics, 17(5):773 (1990).

B A Faddegon, L Van der Zwan, D W O Rogers, and C K Ross. Precision Response-Function Estimation, Energy Calibration, and Unfolding of Spectra Measured With a Large NaI Detector. Nucl. Inst. Meth., A301:138 (1991).

B A Faddegon, C K Ross, and D W O Rogers. Angular Distributions of Bremsstrahlung from 15 MeV Electrons Incident on Thick Targets of Be, Al and Pb. Med Phys 18(4):727 (1991).

D W O Rogers and B A Faddegon. Re-evaluation of the Total Stopping Power of 5.3 MeV Electrons in Polystyrene. Phys. Med. Biol. 37(4):969 (1992).

B A Faddegon, C K Ross, and D W O Rogers. Measurement of Collision Stopping Powers of Graphite, Aluminum and Copper for 10 and 20 MeV Electrons. Phys. Med. Biol. 37(7):1561 (1992).

B A. Faddegon and D W O Rogers. Comparisons of Thick-target Bremsstrahlung Calculated with EGS and ITS. Nucl. Inst. Meth. A327:556 (1993).

K Sixel and B A Faddegon. Calculation of x-ray spectra for radiosurgical beams. Med. Phys. 22(10):1657 (1995).

D W O Rogers, B A Faddegon, G X Ding, C-M Ma, J We, and T R Mackie. BEAM: A Monte Carlo code to simulate radiotherapy treatment units. Med. Phys. 22(5):503 (1995).

C-M Ma, B A Faddegon, D W O Rogers, and T R Mackie. Accurate characterization of Monte Carlo calculated electron beams for radiotherapy. Med. Phys. 24(3):401 (1997).

D Scora and B A Faddegon. Monte Carlo based phase-space-evolution for electron dose calculation. Med. Phys. 24(2):177 (1997).

B A Faddegon, J Balogh, R Mackenzie, and D Scora. Clinical considerations of Monte Carlo for electron radiotherapy treatment planning. Rad. Phys. and Chem. 53(3):217-227 (1998).

O Z Ostapiak, P F O'Brien, B A Faddegon. Megavoltage imaging with low Z targets: Implementation and characterization of an investigational system. Med. Phys. 25(10): 1910-1918 (1998).

B.A. Faddegon, P. F. O'Brien, D. L. D. Mason. The flattened area of Siemens linear accelerator x-ray fields. Med. Phys. 26(2):220-228, (1999).

B A Faddegon, I Blevis. Electron spectra derived from depth dose distributions. Med. Phys. 27(3):514-526, July, (2000).

C L Hartmann-Siantar, R S Walling, T P Daly, B A Faddegon, N Albright, P Bergstrom, A F Bielajew, C Chuang, D Garrett, R K House, D Knapp, D J Wieczorek and L J Verhey. Description and dosimetric verification of the PEREGRINE Monte Carlo dose calculation system for photon beams incident on a water phantom. Med. Phys. 28(7):1322-1337, (2001).

K R Hogstrom, R A Boyd, J A Antolak, M M Svatos, B A Faddegon, and J G Rosenman. Dosimetry of a prototype retractable eMLC for fixed-beam electron therapy. Med. Phys. 31:443, (2004).

J Coleman, Joy, C Park, J E Villarreal-Barajas, P Petti, B A Faddegon. A Comparison of Monte Carlo and Fermi-Eyges-Hogstrom Estimates of Heart and Lung Dose from Breast Electron Boost Treatment. Int. J. Onc. Biol. Phys., Volume 61(2):309-317, (2005).

E Schreiber, B A Faddegon. Sensitivity of large-field electron beams to variations in a Monte Carlo accelerator model. Phys. Med. Biol. 50: 769-778, (2005).

B A Faddegon, E Schreiber, X Ding. Monte Carlo simulation of large electron fields. Phys. Med. Biol. 50:741-753, (2005).

B A Faddegon, J E Villarreal-Barajas. Final Aperture Superposition Technique applied to fast calculation of electron output factors and depth dose curves. Med. Phys. 32:3286, (2005).

A S Beddar, P J Biggs, S Chang, G A Ezzell, B A Faddegon, F W Hensley, M D Mills. Intraoperative radiation therapy using mobile electron linear accelerators: Report of AAPM Radiation Therapy Committee Task Group No. 72. Med. Phys., 33(5):1476-1489, (2006).

T Ozawa, B A Faddegon, L J Hu, A W Bollen, K R Lamborn, D F Deen. Response of intracerebral human glioblastoma xenografts to multi-fraction radiation exposures. Int. J. Radiat. Onc. Biol. Phys. (In-Press)

B A Faddegon, E Garde . A pulse-rate dependence of dose per monitor unit and its significant effect on wedged-shaped fields delivered with variable dose rate and a moving jaw. Med. Phys.33:3063-3065, (2006).

AS Beddar, PJ Biggs, S Chang, GA Ezzell, BA Faddegon, FW Hensley, MD Mills. Intraoperative radiation therapy using mobile electron linear accelerators: Report of AAPM Radiation Therapy Committee Task Group No. 72, Med. Phys., 33(5):1476-1489, (2006).

IJ Chetty B Curran, JE Cygler, JJ DeMarco, G Ezzell, BA Faddegon, I Kawrakow, PJ Keall, H Liu, C Ma, DWO Rogers, J Seuntjens, D Sheikh-Bagheri, Jeffrey, V Siebers. Report of the AAPM Task Group No. 105: Issues associated with clinical implementation of Monte Carlo-based photon and electron external beam treatment planning, Med. Phys. 34:4818-4853, (2007).

B A Faddegon, J Perl and M Asai. Monte Carlo simulation of large electron fields, Phys. Med. Biol. 53:1497-1510, 2008. August, (2007).

R W J Janssen, B A Faddegon and W J F Dries. Prototyping a large field size IORT applicator for a mobile linear accelerator, Phys. Med. Biol. 53:2089-2102, (2008).

C Ross, M McEwen , A McDonald , C Cojocaru , B Faddegon. Measurement of multiple scattering of 13 and 20 MeV electrons by thin foils, Accepted by Med. Phys., July, (2008).

B A Faddegon, M Asai, J Perl, C Ross, J Sempau, J Tinslay, and F Salvat. Benchmarking of Monte Carlo simulation of bremsstrahlung from thick targets at radiotherapy energies, Accepted by Med. Phys., Aug, (2008).

B A Faddegon, V Wu , J Pouliot , B Gangadharan , and A B-Hashemi. Low Dose Megavoltage Cone Beam CT with an Unflattened 4 MV Beam From a Carbon Target, Accepted by Med. Phys., October, 2008

V Wu, M Aubin, A Bani-Hashemi, B Gangadharan, AR Gottschalk, O Morin, SS Yom, and B Faddegon. High quality low dose con beam CT images of patents with a megavoltage imaging beam line. Accepted by International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, 2009.