Background
Dr. Shepherd is the medical director of Fred Hutch Cancer Center – Proton Therapy. She provides radiation therapy and emphasizes thorough, detail oriented care, encouraging patients to share concerns as they make treatment decisions. She works to ensure radiation treatments are delivered precisely as planned.
Research has been an integral part of Dr. Shepherd’s career. Her work focuses on advancing radiation therapy for thoracic tumors, particularly proton therapy — a type of radiation that uses protons to target tumors more precisely and reduce damage to surrounding tissue. She studies radiation related toxicity, meaning side effects caused by radiation, and why some patients are more sensitive to radiation than others. She has written, run and led multiple clinical trials and published extensively in this area.
Dr. Shepherd has particular interest in thymic tumors, serving on the board of the International Thymic Malignancy Interest Group (ITMIG) and as chair and moderator of the ITMIG Tumor Boards. She has been involved in multiple clinical thymic projects and was the principal investigator of an investigator-initiated trial looking at treating the whole pleura with intensity-modulated pleural radiation therapy using proton therapy in thymic patients with pleural metastases. Her research includes studies of proton therapy for patients who need repeat radiation, have large treatment areas, are at higher risk for radiation complications or require radiation after surgery.
Area of Clinical Practice
Lung cancer, mesothelioma, thymic tumors
