Walter J. “Wally” Curran, Jr., MD, the first radiation oncologist to serve as director of a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, stepped down from that role at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute in January 2021 to take the reins as global chief medical officer of GenesisCare, which provides radiation oncology, urology, and pulmonary treatments out of 440 centers across the world.
Also former chairman of the Department of Radiology at Winship, Dr. Curran will continue to serve as a professor emeritus there. He will also retain his role as a group chairman of the cooperative clinical-trials organization NRG Oncology.
Dr. Curran is an international expert in the management of patients with locally advanced lung cancer and malignant brain tumors who has led landmark clinical trials and is credited with defining a widely used staging system for patients with malignant glioma.
A fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology who served on its board of directors, Dr. Curran is founding secretary/treasurer of the Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups and a board member of the Georgia Center for Oncology Research and Education. The journal Medical Imaging named him the leading radiation oncologist/cancer researcher of 2006 based on the results of a peer survey, and in 2013, the Georgia Research Alliance named him an Eminent Scholar and Chair in Cancer Research.
Before joining Emory, Dr. Curran served as professor and chairman of radiation oncology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and as clinical director of that institution’s Kimmel Cancer Center.
The author or co-author of more than 700 abstracts and papers, Dr. Curran was listed among the top 25 principal investigators for 2012 and 2013, ranked according to overall levels of National Institutes of Health funding, by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research.
His career achievement awards include recognitions from the American Head and Neck Society, the American College of Radiation Oncology, the Brain Tumor Foundation for Children, and his alma mater, the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. In 2019, the American Society for Radiation Oncology awarded him its highest honor, the Gold Medal, for his outstanding contributions to the field.