Sonja Dieterich, Ph.D.

Clinical/Research Interests

I specialize in the medical physics of complex treatments and small-field dosimetry, with vast experience in frameless stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiotherapy and an interest in image-guided high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy. My clinical research interests include improving image- guidance in HDR brachytherapy and in-vivo dosimetry to validate new dose calculation algorithms. As a medical physicist, I collaborate closely with physicians to determine the best use of advanced technology for each individual situation and contribute my technical expertise to support our patients' fight against cancer.

Title:

Associate Professor, Medical Physicist

Specialty:

Cancer, Medical Physics, Radiation Oncology

Center/Program Affiliation:

UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center

Other Languages:

German

Education:

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Piscataway, NJ
Ph.D. 2002

Technical University Darmstadt
Darmstadt,
M.S. 1998

Fellowships:

Georgetown University Hospital
Washington D.C.,
2003
Radiation Oncology

Georgetown University
Washington D.C.,
2002
Radiation Medicine

Board Certifications:

American Board of Radiology, Therapeutic Radiological Physics, 2006

Professional Memberships:

American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM)
American College of Radiology (ACR)
American Physical Society (APS)
American Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology (ASTRO)
Radiosurgery Society (RSS)

Honors and Awards:

FDA, "Certificate for Outstanding Contribution on Promoting Patient Safety with Medical Devices", 2010
AAPM Medical Physics Travel Grant, 2007
6th Annual CyberKnife User’s Meeting, "Most Outstanding Abstract", 2007
3rd Annual CyberKnife User’s Meeting, "Outstanding Technical Achievement Award", 2003

Select Recent Publications:

L. Wang, K. N. Kielar, E. Mok, A. Hsu, S. Dieterich and L. Xing, "An end-to-end examination of geometric accuracy of IGRT using a new digital accelerator equipped with onboard imaging system," Phys Med Biol. 2012; 57, 757-769.

A. Ho, A. T. Lo, S. Dieterich, S. G. Soltys, I. C. Gibbs, S. G. Chang and J. R. Adler, "Trigeminal neuralgia treatment dosimetry of the Cyberknife," Med Dosim (2011).

J. C. Hong, Y. Yu, A. K. Rao, S. Dieterich, P. G. Maxim, Q. T. Le, M. Diehn, D. Y. Sze, N. Kothary and B. W. Loo, Jr., "High retention and safety of percutaneously implanted endovascular embolization coils as fiducial markers for image-guided stereotactic ablative radiotherapy of pulmonary tumors," Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2011; 81, 85-90.

A. Schlaefer and S. Dieterich, "Feasibility of case-based beam generation for robotic radiosurgery," Artif Intell Med (2011).

S. Dieterich, C. Cavedon, C. F. Chuang, A. B. Cohen, J. A. Garrett, C. L. Lee, J. R. Lowenstein, M. F. d'Souza, D. D. Taylor, Jr., X. Wu and C. Yu, "Report of AAPM TG 135: quality assurance for robotic radiosurgery," Med Phys.2011; 38, 2914-2936.

Murphy, J. D., Christman-Skieller, C., Kim, J., Dieterich, S., Chang, D. T. Koong, A. C. A Dosimetric Model of Duodenal Toxicity After Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for Pancreatic Cancer. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys (2010).

S. Dieterich and G. W. Sherouse, "Experimental comparison of seven commercial dosimetry diodes for measurement of stereotactic radiosurgery cone factors," Med Phys 38, 4166-4173 (2011). A. Sawant, S. Dieterich, M. Svatos and P. Keall, "Failure mode and effect analysis-based quality assurance for dynamic MLC tracking systems," Med Phys. 2010; 37, 6466-6479.

Wiersma RD, Riaz N, Dieterich S, et al. Use of MV and kV imager correlation for maintaining continuous real-time 3D internal marker tracking during beam interruptions. Phys Med Biol 2009;54:89-103.