Michael Vieceli Matched with UF Health
Congratulations to Michael Vieceli, a medical physics graduate research assistant working at the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute, who successfully defended his PhD dissertation defense on April 15, 2025. His defense presented research aimed at improving prostate cancer treatment outcomes, including the research outlined in his publication, “Potential Therapeutic Improvements in Prostate Cancer Treatment Using Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy with LETd Optimization and Disease-Specific RBE Models,” which was published in the Cancers Journal in February 2024.
He is currently working on converting the other two specific aims of his research into publications. “The other major portion of the dissertation was irradiating prostate cancer cells with LET-optimized protons. We found that DNA repair mutations correlated with overall radiosensitivity and LET sensitivity,” said Dr. Vieceli. Find out more about his research about improving prostate cancer treatment outcomes in our blog highlighting his work.
In addition, Michael Vieceli, PhD was honored to match with the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute and will begin his residency program here this summer. We are excited that Michael Vieceli, PhD, will continue to work to improve outcomes for patients here at the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute.
Dr. Vieceli shared, “I have been blessed to have the unique opportunity to do my PhD at the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute. I had the great opportunity to work with state-of-the-art proton technology, including performing an end-to-end proton therapy workflow, to do research in LET-optimized prostate cancer treatment. I am very grateful for the opportunity to stay here for my residency and am greatly looking forward to beginning my clinical training.”
Lymphoma Survivorship Education Event Held in April
Many blood cancers, including lymphomas, are associated with favorable prognoses with high cure rates. Especially for those patients diagnosed as adolescents and young adults, it’s imperative that they undergo what is called survivorship care, which focuses on patients so they can remain healthy, not just from having had cancer, but also the late effects that can be associated with treatment. In April, the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute led by Raymond Mailhot, MD, partnered with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for them to come discuss the role, education and services they, as an advocacy group, offer patient survivors and their caregivers as well as the importance of survivorship care.
Breast Cancer Survivor Pam Reckner Makes USA World Team
The upcoming 17th IDBF World Dragon Boat Racing Championships will be held in Brandenburg, Germany in June. For the first time in history, a provisional Breast Cancer Paddler (BCP) division is included. Congrats to the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute patient and breast cancer survivor Pam Reckner for making the team. Read more about Pam’s story here.