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Patricia (Penny) K. Sneed, MD, FACR

Professor
Clinical Services Director at Parnassus and Vice-Chair,
Department of Radiation Oncology

Mother, grandmother, quilter

Meet Dr. Sneed

I love meeting and getting to know people, and leveraging UCSF expertise to treat the problem that brought them here.

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Research Center

Dr. Sneed is a senior Radiation Oncologist at UCSF who specializes in radiotherapy and radiosurgery for brain metastases and various primary brain tumors. She earned a summa cum laude undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri in 1976, graduated from Stanford Medical School in 1981, and did her Radiation Oncology residency and a one-year research fellowship at UCSF, joining the faculty in 1986. She officially retired as of July 2018 and then returned in August 2018 as a recalled faculty member, working 43% time. She has tremendous expertise in Gamma Knife radiosurgery–dating back to January 1992–for brain metastases, meningiomas, schwannomas, pituitary adenomas, arteriovenous malformations, trigeminal neuralgia, and other conditions. She greatly enjoys interacting with patients and their families and working with multidisciplinary colleagues and trainees.

Education

1976	University of Missouri, Columbia	BS	Electrical Engineering
1981	Stanford University Medical School	MD	Medicine
1981-1982	Wadsworth VA Medical Center, Los Angeles	Internal Medicine	Internship
1982-1983, 1984-1986	UCSF	Radiation Oncology	Resident
01/86-06/86	UCSF	Radiation Oncology	Chief Resident
1983-1984	UCSF	Radiation Oncology	Postdoctoral Fellow (Supported on NIH Radiation Oncology Research Training Grant)

Professional Experience

2000-present	UCSF	Radiation Oncology	Professor in Residence & Vice Chair
1994-2000	UCSF	Radiation Oncology	Associate Professor in Residence
1987-1994	UCSF	Radiation Oncology	Assistant Professor in Residence
1986-1987	UCSF	Radiation Oncology	Instructor in Residence

Awards & Honors

1975	Eta Kappa Nu
1975	Pi Mu Epsilon
1975	Mortar Board
1976	Tau Beta Pi
1976	Phi Kappa Phi
1976	B.S. degree summa cum laude
1979	American Cancer Society Medical Student Summer Fellowship in Radiation Therapy at Stanford University School of Medicine
1984-1986	American Cancer Society Regular Clinical Fellowship in Radiation Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco
1985	American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology Resident Essay Award
1986-1989	NIH Clinical Investigator Award
1990	UCSF Affirmative Action Faculty Development Award
1994	Association of American Medical Colleges Professional Development Seminar for Junior Women Faculty
2002	Fellowship in the American College of Radiology (FACR)

Research

NIH: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/penny.sneed.1/bibliography/public/

Significant Research Highlights:

PMID 31835173: UCSF was a major contributor of cases to this large multi-institutional study describing results of volume-staged radiosurgery for large arteriovenous malformations.

PMID 31785436: UCSF has extensive experience with radiosurgery for brain metastases. This paper describes results in patients with ten or more brain metastases.

PMID 31168670: Dr. Sneed and Dr. McDermott have the largest published experience showing the success of radiotherapy in controlling multiply recurrent epidermoid cysts.

PMID 27367240: UCSF has a long experience with brain brachytherapy. This paper reports results of permanent brachytherapy for 95 large or recurrent brain metastases.

PMID 25978710: Dr. Sneed spearheaded this study of the incidence, time course, and risk factors for overall adverse radiation effect (ARE) and symptomatic ARE after stereotactic radiosurgery for 2200 brain metastases in 435 evaluable patients.