Tu Dan, M.D.

Radiation Oncology
Radiation Therapy for Cancer
Radiation Therapy for Spinal Cord Cancer

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Biography

Dr. Tu Dan grew up in Florida and graduated cum laude from the University of Florida with degrees in microbiology and psychology; he continued at UF and earned his medical degree with honors in research. During medical school, he spent significant time at the National Institutes of Health developing his interests in cancer research and, between his third and fourth years, was selected to participate in the prestigious NIH Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP).

His interest in research continued as he completed an internship in internal medicine and a residency in radiation oncology at Thomas Jefferson University in Pennsylvania. While in residency, he was awarded a Resident Seed Grant from the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) investigating the role of microRNAs in the development of breast cancer. He has been the lead or contributing author of numerous cancer research papers published in peer-reviewed medical journals.

Dr. Dan arrived at UT Southwestern in 2016 and became a member of the dedicated central nervous system (CNS) cancer team focusing on the treatment of adults and children with primary and metastatic brain tumors. He remains active in the laboratory and is interested in utilizing next-generation gene-editing technology (e.g., clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, or CRISPR ) to investigate novel mediators of radiation sensitivity and resistance under the direction of Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Joshua Mendell, M.D., Ph.D.

Despite his transplant to Dallas, Dr. Dan remains loyal to Florida sports and continues to be a lifelong Gators fan. He is a health and fitness advocate who takes a holistic approach to treatment and has published a number of manuscripts examining the role of diet in the development and treatment of cancer. He believes that in addition to standard treatments, other factors including diet, exercise, and psychological well-being all play important roles in the care of cancer patients.

Meet Dr. Dan

Tu Dan, M.D., is a member of the team devoted to treating central nervous system (CNS) malignancies such as brain tumors and cancers of the spinal cord. He is also a committed physician-scientist, devoting a significant portion of his professional time to the study of radiation resistance and strategies to improve the efficacy of radiation.

"When I began studying to become a doctor, I encountered so many uncertainties and shortcomings in our current understanding of cancer,” Dr. Dan says. “I was always questioning why we couldn’t explain why certain tumors behave differently than others. This is what motivated me to pursue a research career – to improve our understanding of cancer so that better treatments for patients can be developed.”

With advanced tools such as CyberKnife and Gamma Knife, Dr. Dan works closely with UT Southwestern’s neurosurgery team to treat both primary and metastatic cancers in the brain and spine. He also has specialized training and experience in treating pediatric patients with cancer.

“Cancer can be a very scary diagnosis; there’s a lot of anxiety involved,” Dr. Dan says. “Cancer is also very complex. It’s important for doctors to use their experience and expertise to distill the information as best as possible so that patients can understand what their treatment options are and best formulate their goals of care.

“My role is to be an advocate and information source so that patients can make the best decisions for themselves.”

Dr. Tu Dan’s clinical interests include:

Radiation therapy
Central nervous system (CNS) malignancies
Pediatric cancer

Education & Training

Residency - Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University (2012-2016), Radiation Oncology
Internship - University of Florida College of Medicine (2011-2012), Internal Medicine
Medical School - University of Florida College of Medicine (2006-2011)

Honors & Awards

Texas Super Doctors, Rising Star 2021
Texas Super Doctors, Rising Star 2020

Books & Publications

Publications
- Deep-learning and radiomics ensemble classifier for false positive reduction in brain metastases segmentation.
  Yang Z, Chen M, Kazemimoghadam M, Ma L, Stojadinovic S, Timmerman RD, Dan T, Wardak Z, Lu W, Gu X, Physics in medicine and biology 2021 Dec
- Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy Enabled Total Body Irradiation (VMAT-TBI): Six-year Clinical Experience and Treatment Outcomes.
  Zhang-Velten ER, Parsons D, Lee P, Chambers E, Abdulrahman R, Desai NB, Dan T, Wardak Z, Timmerman R, Vusirikala M, Patel P, Simms-Waldrip T, Aquino V, Koh A, Tan J, Iqbal Z, Zhang Y, Reynolds R, Chiu T, Joo M, Hrycushko B, Ouyang L, Lamphier R, Yan Y, Jiang SB, Kumar KA, Gu X, Transplantation and cellular therapy 2021 Nov
- Preoperative radiosurgery for resected brain metastases: the PROPS-BM multicenter cohort study.
  Prabhu RS, Dhakal R, Vaslow ZK, Dan T, Mishra MV, Murphy ES, Patel TR, Asher AL, Yang K, Manning MA, Stern JD, Patel AR, Wardak Z, Woodworth GF, Chao ST, Mohammadi A, Burri SH, International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2021 May
- Bevacizumab and re-irradiation for recurrent high grade gliomas: does sequence matter?
  Palmer JD, Bhamidipati D, Song A, Eldredge-Hindy HB, Siglin J, Dan TD, Champ CE, Zhang I, Bar-Ad V, Kim L, Glass J, Evans JJ, Andrews DW, Werner-Wasik M, Shi W Journal of neuro-oncology 2018 Sep
- Neoadjuvant Stereotactic Radiosurgery Prior to Surgical Resection of Cerebral Metastases.
  Patel AR, Nedzi L, Lau S, Barnett SL, Mickey BE, Moore W, Bindal S, Wardak Z, Dan T, Timmerman R, Patel TR World neurosurgery 2018 Aug
- Caloric restriction counteracts chemotherapy-induced inflammation and increases response to therapy in a triple negative breast cancer model.
  Simone BA, Palagani A, Strickland K, Ko K, Jin L, Lim MK, Dan TD, Sarich M, Monti DA, Cristofanilli M, Simone NL Cell cycle (Georgetown, Tex.) 2018 Jun
- Correction to: Salvage fractionated stereotactic re-irradiation (FSRT) for patients with recurrent high grade gliomas progressed after bevacizumab treatment.
  Shi W, Blomain ES, Siglin J, Palmer JD, Dan T, Wang Y, Werner-Wasik M, Glass J, Kim L, Bar Ad V, Bhamidipati D, Evans JJ, Judy K, Farrell CJ, Andrews DW Journal of neuro-oncology 2018 Jan
- Salvage fractionated stereotactic re-irradiation (FSRT) for patients with recurrent high grade gliomas progressed after bevacizumab treatment.
  Shi W, Blomain ES, Siglin J, Palmer JJ, Dan T, Wang Y, Werner-Wasik M, Glass J, Kim L, Bar Ad V, Bhamidipati D, Evans JJ, Judy K, Farrell CJ, Andrews DW Journal of neuro-oncology 2017 Dec
- The Influence of Health Insurance Policy on Radiation Oncology Physician SBRT/SABR Use Practices: A North American Survey.
  Guo J, Kim H, Kalchman I, Dan TD, Zhan T, Werner-Wasik M International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2017 Nov 99 3 524-529
- Management of Stage I Lung Cancer with Stereotactic Ablative Radiation Therapy.
  Dan T, Williams NL Surgical oncology clinics of North America 2017 Jul 26 3 393-403
- The Role of Genomic Techniques in Predicting Response to Radiation Therapy.
  Williams NL, Dan T, Zaorsky NG, Garg S, Den RB Oncology (Williston Park, N.Y.) 2017 07 31 7 562-70
- Sharing Experiential Knowledge and Clinical Evidence in an Online Radiation Oncology Social Network.
  Housri N, Ye JC, Lucas JT, Green G, Baschnagel AM, Burt LM, Dan T, Mancini BR, Lloyd S, Housri S International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2016 Oct 96 2S E417
- Radioisotopes in management of metastatic prostate cancer.
  Raval A, Dan TD, Williams NL, Pridjian A, Den RB Indian journal of urology : IJU : journal of the Urological Society of India 2016 Oct-Dec 32 4 277-281
- Caloric Restriction Augments the Molecular Effects of Radiation in Both Hormone-Sensitive and Hormone-Insensitive Prostate Cancers by Decreasing Inflammation.
  Simone B, Dan T, Palagani A, DeAngelis T, Schiewer M, Knudsen KE, Dicker AP, Simone NL International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2016 Oct 96 2S S76
- Dosing, administration, and safety of radium-223: How I do it.
  Dan TD, Doyle L, Raval AJ, Pridjian A, Gomella LG, Den RB The Canadian journal of urology 2016 Jun 23 3 8301-5
- Caloric restriction coupled with radiation decreases metastatic burden in triple negative breast cancer.
  Simone BA, Dan T, Palagani A, Jin L, Han SY, Wright C, Savage JE, Gitman R, Lim MK, Palazzo J, Mehta MP, Simone NL Cell cycle (Georgetown, Tex.) 2016 Mar 1-10
- Quality and Reporting Accuracy of Phase 1 Drug Radiation Clinical Trials.
  Kim H, Dan TD, Palmer JD, Leiby BE, Lawrence YR, Dicker AP JAMA oncology 2016 Mar 2 3 390-1
- Re-resection for recurrent high-grade glioma in the setting of re-irradiation: more is not always better.
  Palmer JD, Siglin J, Yamoah K, Dan T, Champ CE, Bar-Ad V, Werner-Wasik M, Evans JJ, Kim L, Glass J, Farrell C, Andrews DW, Shi W Journal of neuro-oncology 2015 Sep 124 2 215-21
- Freedom from local and regional failure of contralateral neck with ipsilateral neck radiotherapy for node-positive tonsil cancer: updated results of an institutional clinical management approach.
  Dan TD, Raben D, Schneider CJ, Hockstein NG, Witt RL, Dzeda M, Cormier JF, Raben A Oral oncology 2015 Jun 51 6 616-21
- Hematologic Toxicity of Concurrent Administration of Radium-223 and Next-generation Antiandrogen Therapies.
  Dan TD, Eldredge-Hindy HB, Hoffman-Censits J, Lin J, Kelly WK, Gomella LG, Lallas CD, Trabulsi EJ, Hurwitz MD, Dicker AP, Den RB American journal of clinical oncology 2015 Feb
- Not so fast: dietary restriction improves chemotherapy-related toxicity.
  Dan TD, Simone NL Cell cycle (Georgetown, Tex.) 2015 14 16 2554-5
- What benefits could caloric restriction bring to cancer patients?
  Dan TD, Wright CM, Simone NL Future oncology (London, England) 2014 Dec 10 16 2543-6
- microRNA alterations driving acute and late stages of radiation-induced fibrosis in a murine skin model.
  Simone BA, Ly D, Savage JE, Hewitt SM, Dan TD, Ylaya K, Shankavaram U, Lim M, Jin L, Camphausen K, Mitchell JB, Simone NL International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2014 Sep 90 1 44-52
- CD44 is prognostic for overall survival in the NCI randomized trial on breast conservation with 25 year follow-up.
  Dan T, Hewitt SM, Ohri N, Ly D, Soule BP, Smith SL, Matsuda K, Council C, Shankavaram U, Lippman ME, Mitchell JB, Camphausen K, Simone NL Breast cancer research and treatment 2014 Jan 143 1 11-8
- microRNAs: The Short Link between Cancer and RT-Induced DNA Damage Response.
  Wright CM, Dan T, Dicker AP, Simone NL Frontiers in oncology 2014 4 133
- Absence of bone marrow toxicity in elderly patients treated with recombinant human thyroid-stimulating hormone and empirically dosed radioiodine for thyroid cancer.
  Amdur RJ, Dan T, Mazzaferri E American journal of clinical oncology 2013 Aug 36 4 348-53
- Caloric restriction augments radiation efficacy in breast cancer.
  Saleh AD, Simone BA, Palazzo J, Savage JE, Sano Y, Dan T, Jin L, Champ CE, Zhao S, Lim M, Sotgia F, Camphausen K, Pestell RG, Mitchell JB, Lisanti MP, Simone NL Cell cycle (Georgetown, Tex.) 2013 Jun 12 12 1955-63
- Comparison of intensity-modulated radiotherapy, adaptive radiotherapy, proton radiotherapy, and adaptive proton radiotherapy for treatment of locally advanced head and neck cancer.
  Simone CB, Ly D, Dan TD, Ondos J, Ning H, Belard A, O'Connell J, Miller RW, Simone NL Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology 2011 Dec 101 3 376-82
- Emerging drugs to replace current leaders in first-line therapy for breast cancer.
  Cox MC, Dan TD, Swain SM Expert opinion on emerging drugs 2006 Sep 11 3 489-501

Research

Dr. Dan is a post-doc in the Mendell Lab, which focuses on mechanisms of post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression and how these pathways influence normal physiology and disease.

Clinical Focus

Radiation Therapy for Cancer
Radiation Therapy for Spinal Cord Cancer
Acoustic Neuromas
Bone Marrow Transplant
Brain Metastases
Pediatric Brain Tumors
Brain & Spinal Cord Cancer
Gliomas
Meningiomas
Pituitary Tumors
Skull Base Tumors
Radiation Therapy for Brain Tumors