In honor of Lawrence Marks, MD
Dr. Lawrence Marks has always been a “numbers guy.” As a young college student, he thought he’d be a chemical engineer, not a doctor. But after an engineering internship that didn’t have a lot of people contact, he decided to pursue medicine. He liked caring for patients but there was little opportunity to routinely use math in medical school. Then he discovered radiation oncology. And he thought, “I could use physics and math to help care for patients.”
Today, Dr. Marks is regarded as one of the top breast cancer and lung cancer specialists and teachers in the country. He is most well known for his work to better understand radiation-induced normal tissue injury. Although he’s won numerous awards, accolades don’t drive him.
“I’m most proud of the teaching and mentoring work with young people to help them understand cancer and how to best treat it,” he says. “And right now, the most rewarding part of this job is upgrading the quality and scope of the services we offer to patients.”
UNC has become a pioneer in computer-assisted image-guided therapy, which allows radiation oncologists such as Dr. Marks to kill cancer cells more effectively.
“Moving into this new cancer hospital, with new equipment, we’ll be better able to define and aim radiation beams to improve the quality of care for our patients.”