Zvi Fuks, MD, is an emeritus member of Memorial Sloan Kettering. A renowned radiation oncologist, he held the Alfred P. Sloan Chair in Radiation Oncology, was Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology, and was a member of the Molecular Pharmacology Program in the Sloan Kettering Institute.

Dr. Fuks was one of the principal developers of three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) and intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), two sophisticated computer-guided techniques that deliver radiation to tumors with minimal exposure to surrounding healthy tissue. These techniques have led to important advances in the ability to cure tumors using radiation therapy. More recently he has led efforts to use single-dose radiation therapy to improve cure rates of several cancers.

In his laboratory in the Sloan Kettering Institute, Dr. Fuks studied the biologic mechanism by which radiotherapy cures tumors, demonstrating that radiation damage to both the tumor cells and the small blood vessel network that feeds the tumor are required. He showed that signals produced by the damaged microvascular system interfere with tumor cells’ ability to repair radiation damage, leading to their demise.

Zvi Fuks was elected to the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) in 2011. He received his MD from Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Jerusalem, Israel.