Tobin Hyman has 28 years of experience in Radiation Oncology and has served as the Chief Medical Physicist at McLeod since 2007. He has been board certified in Therapeutic Radiologic Physics since 2000. Hyman also serves as a Senior Physicist Surveyor for the American College of Radiology and as a member of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Medical Accelerator Working Group. A former member of the ACR-ROPA committee from 2017 to 2022, Hyman has spent 13 years participating in the ACR Radiation Oncology Practice Accreditation program as a surveyor. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Francis Marion University with a Bachelor of Science in health physics and completed a Master of Science in health physics from the University of Florida.

Brittany Earl joined the McLeod team in 2019. She earned her board certification from the American Board of Radiology in April 2022. During her residency at the Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Earl served as Chief Resident for the Center’s Commission on Medical Physics Education Programs (CAMPEP) Accredited Residency Program. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in physics from North Carolina State University. She also completed a Master of Science in medical physics at Duke University where she earned the Directors Award for Exemplary Service for the Duke University Medical Physics Graduate Program.

Ben Dapaah-Afriyie has been a member of the McLeod Physics team since 2019. He received board certification from the American Board of Radiology in October 2022. He also completed his residency at the CARTI Cancer Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. A CAMPEP Accredited Resident, Dapaah-Afriyie was one of two residents and six staff physicians at CARTI covering six cancer centers throughout the state with general duties including routine quality analysis of Varian Linacs, clinical workflow improvement projects, and patient treatment review in a paperless environment using MOSAIQ R&V. A graduate of the College of the Holy Cross with a Bachelor of Arts in physics, Dapaah-Afriyie completed a Master of Science in medical physics at Cleveland State University, a CAMPEP Accredited Graduate Program.

This form of treatment allows the McLeod Radiation Oncology team to deliver precisely-targeted radiation with sub-millimeter accuracy in a fewer number of treatments offering patients more convenience and a better quality of life. When the team uses radiotherapy to treat tumors in areas of the body other than the brain and spine (lung, liver, adrenal gland, prostate); it is referred to as stereotactic body radiotherapy. These two forms of treatment, performed at McLeod, function differently from conventional radiation in that the intent involves delivering an ablative dose to overwhelm all of the abilities of a cancer cell to defend itself.

Advantages of the TrueBeam linear accelerators include the degree of precision offered, the submillimeter accuracy which minimizes harm to healthy tissue and adjacent critical structures such as the spinal cord or lungs, and a platform that moves in six dimensions to position the patient in the best possible way for treatment. Featuring advanced imaging capabilities such as cone-beam CT, these linear accelerators also allow the team to conform the radiation dose to the tumor target, verify the location and shape of the tumor and make adjustments during treatment.

Precise patient set up, tumor targeting, and continuous tracking of patient movement is accomplished through image guided radiotherapy (IGRT). Additionally, this particular linear accelerator allows the McLeod Radiation Oncology team to improve treatment times for patients. The team can treat unlimited tumors in a patient’s brain in one 30 to 45-minute treatment session rather than 30 to 45 minutes per tumor.

In addition to cancer, SRS can be used to treat benign conditions such as schwanomas, acoustic neuromas and Arteriovenous Malformations (AVMs).