All Experts


Meet the Expert: Anthony V. D'Amico, MD, PhD
Professor and Chief of Genitourinary Radiation Oncology
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Dr. Anthony V. D'Amico is an internationally known expert in the treatment of prostate cancer and has defined combined modality staging, which is used to select patients with localized prostate cancer for specific surgical or radiotheraputic treatment options. He is the principal investigator of several federally funded grants that support his investigations in Image Guided Therapy for early stage prostate cancer, drug development for advanced stage prostate cancer, and clinical trials that are aimed at defining future management strategies for men with prostate cancer.

Dr. D'Amico is currently developing and testing optical and molecular imaging technology, which holds great promise for significantly improving the way in which prostate cancer is detected and treated. In conjunction with this work, Dr. D'Amico is currently leading the effort towards the creation of a Prostate Cancer Institute in the Harvard Medical Complex.

Dr. D'Amico holds two undergraduate and three graduate degrees: a B.S. in physics, a B.S. in nuclear engineering, M.S. in nuclear engineering, and a Ph.D. in radiation physics, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed his residency in the department of radiation oncology of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he served as chief resident during his final year. He has over 150 peer reviewed original publications and editorials, and his teaching contributions include his position as Co-director of the Harvard Combined Residency in Radiation Oncology, Associate Master of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Society, editorial board member of 6 scientific journals, and editor of four textbooks on the management of prostate cancer.

Editorial Boards:

1992 - Int. J. Rad. Oncology, Biology, and Physics
2000 - Urologic Oncology
2001 - Urology
2002 - Journal of Clinical Oncology
2006 - Cancer

Expert Reviewer:

1993 - Cancer
1995 - International Journal of Cancer
1995 - Int. J. Rad. Oncology, Biology, and Physics
1997 - Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases
1998 - The Journal of Urology
1998 - Urology
1998 - Radiotherapy and Oncology
1998 - The Journal of Clinical Oncology
1998 - Journal of the American Medical Association
1998 - The Lancet
2000 - Oncology
2000 - The New England Journal of Medicine
2006 - The Lancet Oncology

Awards And Honors:

1982: John R. LaMarsch Award, Amer. Nuclear Society,Institute of Nuclear Power Operation Scholarship
1983-1986: Department of Energy Graduate Fellowship in Nuclear Engineering and Health Physics
1984: SURDNA Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1986: American Nuclear Society Graduate Scholarship
1989: Alpha Omega Alpha: University of Pennsylvania
1993-1994: American Cancer Society Clinical Oncology Fellow
1997: American Radium Society, Young Oncologist Travel Award
2003: Honorable Mention Harvard Medical School Prize for Excellence in Teaching
2003: Teacher of the Year Award, National Association of Radiation Oncology Residents
2003: Physician Recognition Award in Clinical Innovation, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
2003: Donald Coffey Research Award for Outstanding Physician Scientist
2004: Harvard Medical School Clifford Berger Mentorship Award
2008, 2009: Nominee, Harvard Medical School Prize for Excellence in Teaching (Years III and IV)

D'Amico Risk Group Classification for Predicting Survival Following Radical Prostatectomy:

• Editorial - Mayo Clinic Validation of the D'Amico Risk Group Classification for Predicting Survival Following Radical Prostatectomy


• Beyond the Abstract - Mayo Clinic Validation of the D'Amico Risk Group Classification for Predicting Survival Following Radical Prostatectomy

Selected Publications:

• Predictors of Prostate Cancer-Specific Mortality in Elderly Men with Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer Treated with Brachytherapy with or without External Beam Radiation Therapy


• Hormonal therapy use for prostate cancer and mortality in men with coronary artery disease-induced congestive heart failure or myocardial infarction


• Risk of death from prostate cancer after brachytherapy alone or with radiation, androgen suppression therapy, or both in men with high-risk disease


• The COMPARE Registry: Design and Baseline Patterns of Care for Men With Biochemical Failure After Definitive Treatment of Localized Prostate Cancer


• Total Androgen Blockade Versus a Luteinizing Hormone-Releasing Hormone Agonist Alone in Men with High-Risk Prostate Cancer Treated with Radiotherapy


• Patient-reported quality of life after salvage brachytherapy for radio-recurrent prostate cancer: A prospective Phase II study


• Survival Following Radiation and Androgen Suppression Therapy for Prostate Cancer in Healthy Older Men: Implications for Screening Recommendations


• Interval to testosterone recovery after hormonal therapy for prostate cancer and risk of death


• Predicting the risk of pelvic node involvement among men with prostate cancer in the contemporary era


• Maximum vs. mono androgen blockade and the risk of recurrence in men with localized prostate cancer undergoing brachytherapy


• Time to prostate-specific antigen nadir independently predicts overall survival in patients who have metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer treated with androgen-deprivation therapy


• Gleason Pattern 5 prostate cancer: further stratification of patients with high-risk disease and implications for future randomized trials


• Causes of death in men undergoing androgen suppression therapy for newly diagnosed localized or recurrent prostate cancer


• Biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy for prevalent versus incident cases of prostate cancer: implications for managemen


• Influence of year of diagnosis, patient age, and sociodemographic status on recommending adjuvant radiation treatment for stage I testicular seminoma


• Predictors of patient preferences and treatment choices for localized prostate cancer


• Predicting prostate cancer mortality among men with intermediate to high-risk disease and multiple unfavorable risk factors


• The influence of serial prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening on the PSA velocity at diagnosis


• PSA velocity is associated with gleason score in radical prostatectomy specimen: marker for prostate cancer aggressiveness


• Risk of prostate cancer recurrence in men treated with radiation alone or in conjunction with combined or less than combined androgen suppression therapy


• Predicting PSA failure following salvage radiotherapy for a rising PSA post-prostatectomy: from the CaPSURE database


• Defining the rectal dose constraint for permanent radioactive seed implantation of the prostate


• p53 protein expression status and recurrence in men treated with radiation and androgen suppression therapy for higher-risk prostate cancer: a prospective phase II Cancer and Leukemia Group B Study (CALGB 9682)


• Time to prostate-specific antigen nadir after androgen suppression therapy for postoperative or postradiation PSA failure and risk of prostate cancer-specific mortality


• Prostate specific antigen kinetics in the management of prostate cancer


• Androgen suppression and radiation vs radiation alone for prostate cancer: a randomized trial


• Tumor volume changes on 1.5 tesla endorectal MRI during neoadjuvant androgen suppression therapy for higher-risk prostate cancer and recurrence in men treated using radiation therapy results of the phase II CALGB 9682 study


• Androgen deprivation therapy for localized prostate cancer and the risk of cardiovascular mortality


• PSA failure following definitive treatment of prostate cancer having biopsy Gleason score 7 with tertiary grade 5


• Decision analysis using individual patient preferences to determine optimal treatment for localized prostate cancer


• Prostate-specific antigen velocity and the detection of gleason score 7 to 10 prostate cancer


• Duration of testosterone suppression and the risk of death from prostate cancer in men treated using radiation and 6 months of hormone therapy


• Prostate-specific antigen level at initiation of hormonal therapy after prostate-specific antigen failure following prostatectomy or radiotherapy and therapeutic response


• Effect of definition of preradiotherapy prostate-specific antigen velocity on its association with prostate cancer-specific mortality and all-cause mortality


• Magnetic resonance image-guided salvage brachytherapy after radiation in select men who initially presented with favorable-risk prostate cancer: a prospective phase 2 study


• Patient selection, cancer control, and complications after salvage local therapy for postradiation prostate-specific antigen failure: a systematic review of the literature


• Adjuvant radiotherapy in prostate cancer: predictors of prostate-specific antigen recurrence from the CaPSURE database


• Prostate cancer-specific mortality after radical prostatectomy or external beam radiation therapy in men with 1 or more high-risk factors


• Short- vs long-term androgen suppression plus external beam radiation therapy and survival in men of advanced age with node-negative high-risk adenocarcinoma of the prostate


• Prediagnostic prostate-specific antigen velocity and probability of detecting high-grade prostate cancer


• Influence of body mass index on prostate-specific antigen failure after androgen suppression and radiation therapy for localized prostate cancer


• Time to an undetectable prostate-specific antigen (PSA) after androgen suppression therapy for postoperative or postradiation PSA recurrence and prostate cancer-specific mortality


• Academic career selection and retention in radiation oncology: the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy experience


• Variation in the definition of biochemical recurrence in patients treated for localized prostate cancer: the American Urological Association Prostate Guidelines for Localized Prostate Cancer Update Panel report and recommendations for a standard in the reporting of surgical outcomes


• Patient and treatment factors associated with complications after prostate brachytherapy


• Identifying men diagnosed with clinically localized prostate cancer who are at high risk for death from prostate cancer


• Motion and shape change when using an endorectal balloon during prostate radiation therapy


• Cancer-specific mortality after radiation therapy with short-course hormonal therapy or radical prostatectomy in men with localized, intermediate-risk to high-risk prostate cancer


• Prostate-specific antigen recurrence and mortality after conventional dose radiation therapy in select men with low-risk prostate cancer


• Therapeutic strategies for localized and locally advanced prostate cancer: combining androgen suppression with definitive local therapy


• Six-month androgen suppression plus radiation therapy compared with radiation therapy alone for men with prostate cancer and a rapidly increasing pretreatment prostate-specific antigen level


• Radical prostatectomy for high-grade prostate cancer


• Prostate-specific antigen-based serial screening may decrease prostate cancer-specific mortality


• Predictors of mortality after androgen-deprivation therapy in patients with rapidly rising prostate-specific antigen levels after local therapy for prostate cancer


• Perineural invasion associated with increased cancer-specific mortality after external beam radiation therapy for men with low- and intermediate-risk prostate cancer


• A prospective evaluation of rectal bleeding after dose-escalated three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy using an intrarectal balloon for prostate gland localization and immobilization


• Evidence to support a continued stage migration and decrease in prostate cancer specific mortality


• Prostate-specific antigen velocity and survival for patients with hormone-refractory metastatic prostate carcinoma


• Magnetic resonance spectroscopy-guided transperineal prostate biopsy and brachytherapy for recurrent prostate cancer


• When prostate brachytherapy fails: a case report and discussion


• Maximal tumor diameter and the risk of PSA failure in men with specimen-confined prostate cancer


• Pretreatment predictors of posttreatment PSA doubling times for patients undergoing three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy for clinically localized prostate cancer


• Impact of the percentage of positive biopsy cores on the further stratification of primary grade 3 and grade 4 Gleason score 7 tumors in radical prostatectomy patients


• Utility of prostate-specific antigen kinetics in addition to clinical factors in the selection of patients for salvage local therapy


• Predictors of prostate cancer-specific mortality after radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy


• Prostate-specific antigen nadir and cancer-specific mortality following hormonal therapy for prostate-specific antigen failure


• PSA outcome following radical prostatectomy for patients with localized prostate cancer stratified by prostatectomy findings and the preoperative PSA level


• Prostate-specific antigen response duration and risk of death for patients with hormone-refractory metastatic prostate cancer


• Identifying patients at risk for significant versus clinically insignificant postoperative prostate-specific antigen failure


• Pretreatment PSA velocity and risk of death from prostate cancer following external beam radiation therapy


• Patient-reported acute gastrointestinal toxicity in men receiving 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy for prostate cancer with or without neoadjuvant androgen suppression therapy


• Acute gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and dermatological toxicity during dose-escalated 3D-conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT) using an intrarectal balloon for prostate gland localization and immobilization


• Surrogate end point for prostate cancer specific mortality in patients with nonmetastatic hormone refractory prostate cancer


• Acute urinary retention after magnetic resonance image-guided prostate brachytherapy with and without neoadjuvant external beam radiotherapy


• The impact of a delay in initiating radiation therapy on prostate-specific antigen outcome for patients with clinically localized prostate carcinoma


• A comparative study of rectal dose histograms in prostate brachytherapy: some analytic and numerical results


• Predictors of short postoperative prostate-specific antigen doubling time for patients diagnosed during PSA era


• Prostate specific antigen doubling time as a surrogate end point for prostate cancer specific mortality following radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy


• Impact of the percentage of positive prostate cores on prostate cancer-specific mortality for patients with low or favorable intermediate-risk disease