Sara Thrower, PhD
Department of Radiation Physics, Division of Radiation Oncology
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Assistant Professor, Radiation Physics - Patient Care, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment
Assistant Professor, Radiation Physics - Patient Care, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Research Interests
I am an Assistant Professor in Radiation Physics, and my research passion is expanding the use of MRI in radiation oncology. I have a unique background with specific research training in Imaging Physics and clinical training in Radiation Physics. My dissertation research, funded by an F31 Fellowship, was to develop, validate, and implement a computational model to reconstruct an image of cancer-bound nanoparticles from measurements taken on a novel magnetic relaxometry device. This project taught me to design and implement complex computational methods with the end-user in mind so they are simple to use, broadly applicable, and robust to user error. I began research in brain imaging for radiation therapy during my postdoctoral fellowship, where I worked on projects that investigated the relationship between image quality and the accuracy of delivered dose. I continued this research through my clinical residency, where I greatly improved my skill of designing and quality testing radiation treatment plans, and gained experience with clinical workflows. This new perspective allowed me to tailor my research questions to provide solutions that can be practically implemented in the clinic with today’s technology, or what is to come in the near future.
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2018 | The University of Texas MD Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, US, Ph.D. in Medical Physics |
| 2013 | Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, US, BS in Nuclear Engineering |
Postgraduate Training
| 2020-2022 | Clinical Residency, Medical Physics Resident, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas |
| 2018-2020 | Research Fellowship, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Imaging Physics, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas |
Licenses & Certifications
| 2024 | American Heart Association Basic Life Support (CPR and AED) |
| 2023 | Texas Medical Board |
| 2023 | American Board of Radiology |
Experience & Service
Other Professional Positions
Advanced Fellow, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2018 - 2022
Extramural Institutional Committee Activities
Member, Radiation Physics Residency Program Steering Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2024 - Present
Committee Member, Radiation Oncology Nomenclature Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2021 - Present
Committee Member, Radiation Oncology Quality and Safety Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2021 - 2024
Committee Member, Radiation Oncology Diversity and Inclusion Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2021 - 2023
Committee Member, Radiation Oncology APEx Re-Accreditation Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2021 - 2022
Trainee Representative, Clinical Health Educational Programs (CHEP) Leadership Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2021 - 2022
Committee Member, Radiation Oncology CS&E project #31: Reducing Interruptions, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2021 - 2022
Liason, First-year student liaison, Medical Physics Student Council, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2014 - 2015
Committee Member, Member, Medical Physics Student Curriculum Committee, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2014 - 2015
Editorial Activities
Associate Editor, Medical Physics, 2021
Honors & Awards
| 2020 | Caroline Ross Fellowship Award, The MD Anderson Brain Tumor Center |
| 2018 | Ellen Taylor Goldin Legacy Scholarship, The University of Texas MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences |
| 2018 | SPIE Physics of Medical Imaging Student Paper Award- Runner up, 2018 SPIE Physics of Medical Imaging Conference |
| 2017 | Early Career Scholarship, Winter Institute of Medical Physics |
| 2016 | George M. Stancel, PhD Fellowship in the Biomedical Sciences, The University of Texas MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences |
| 2016 | Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Individual Predoctoral Fellowship, National Cancer Institute |
| 2013 | Best Undergraduate Paper, South Texas Chapter Health Physics Society |
Professional Memberships
Selected Presentations & Talks
Regional Presentations
- 2024. Overview of Women's Advancement in AAPM. Invited. Annual Meeting of the Southwest Chapter of AAPM. Tulsa, OK, US.
- 2013. Characterization of the behavior of a carbon ion beam for the purpose of radiation therapy. Conference. SWAAPM Young Investigator's Symposium. Montgomery, TX, US.
National Presentations
- 2023. Pregnant Patients and Radiation - A Modern Refresher. Invited. AAPM Webinar. Houston, Texas, US.
- 2021. Patient-Specific QA Devices/Software. Invited. AAPM Annual Meeting 2021, US.
- 2018. Comparison of two reconstruction methods for bound-nanoparticle detection using superparamagnetic relaxometry. Conference. AAPM Annual Meeting 2018. Nashville, TN, US.
- 2018. Sensitivity and specificity of a sparse reconstruction algorithm for superparamagnetic relaxometry. Conference. SPIE Physics of Medical Imaging, US.
- 2017. A 3D Reconstruction Algorithm for Superparamagnetic Relaxometry. Conference. AAPM Annual Meeting 2017. Denver, CO, US.
- 2014. Effects of material heterogeneity in APBI Brachytherapy treatment planning. Conference. AAPM Annual Meeting 2014. Austin, TX, US.
International Presentations
- 2023. Highlights of AAPM 2023. Invited. AAPM Radiation Oncology Symposium. Shanghai, CN.
- 2021. Output Constancy of the W2 Scintillator in Flattening Filter Free Fields. Invited. Webinar, US.
- 2016. Sparse source reconstruction for nanomagnetic relaxometry. Conference. International Workshop on Magnetic Particle Imaging 2016. Lubeck, DE.
Grant & Contract Support
| Date: | 2025 - 2026 |
| Title: | Biophysical Modeling of Head & Neck Cancer for Dose Adaptive Radiotherapy |
| Funding Source: | The Joint Center for Computational Oncology |
| Role: | Key |
| Date: | 2016 - 2018 |
| Title: | Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Individual Predoctoral Fellowship |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Principal Investigator-MDACC |
| ID: | 1F31CA210434-01 |
| Title: | ASTRO-AAPM Physics Resident/Post-Doctoral Fellow Seed Grant |
| Funding Source: | American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) |
| Role: | Postdoctoral Fellow |
| Title: | MD Anderson Cancer Center ROSI Advanced Imaging Seed Award |
| Funding Source: | MD Anderson |
| Role: | Postdoctoral Fellow |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Yoder, A, Netherton, T, Wang, X, Lim, TY, Wang, C, Luo, D, Wang, C, Thrower, SL, Nguyen, C, Lyu, H, Scally, CP, Roland, CL, Mitra, D, Bishop, AJ, Farooqi, AS, Guadagnolo, BA. The Impact of Radiation Dose to Bowel on the Risk of Developing Gastrointestinal Toxicities When Treating Abdominopelvic Soft-Tissue Sarcomas With Preoperative Radiation Therapy. Advances in Radiation Oncology 11(2), 2026. e-Pub 2026. PMID: 41492444.
- Miniere HJM, Hormuth DA 2nd, Lima EABF, Farhat M, Panthi B, Langshaw H, Shanker MD, Talpur W, Thrower S, Goldman J, Ty S, Chung C, Yankeelov TE. A data assimilation framework for predicting the spatiotemporal response of high-grade gliomas to chemoradiation. BMC Cancer 25(1):1239, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40730976.
- Hormuth DA 2nd, Farhat M, Panthi B, Langshaw H, Shanker MD, Talpur W, Thrower S, Goldman J, Ty S, Custer C, Kowalski J, Yankeelov TE, Chung C. Forecasting Chemoradiation Response Midtreatment for High-Grade Gliomas Through Patient-Specific Biology-Based Modeling. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 123(5):1413-1427, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40716653.
- Hiremath, KC, Atakishi, K, Lima, EA, Farhat, MA, Panthi, B, Langshaw, H, Shanker, MD, Talpur, W, Thrower, SL, Goldman, J, Chung, C, Yankeelov, TE, Hormuth, DA. Identifiability and model selection frameworks for models of high-grade glioma response to chemoradiation. Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences 383(2293), 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40172557.
- Muthusivarajan R, Celaya A, Farhat M, Talpur W, Langshaw H, White V, Elliott AM, Thrower S, Schellingerhout D, Fuentes D, Chung C. Deep learning-based automated post-operative gross tumor volume segmentation in high-grade glioma patients. IJROBP. e-Pub 2025.
- de Almeida, R, Call-Orellana, F, Young, CC, Rubino, F, Thrower, SL, Chen, SR, North, RY. Hybrid open-endovascular onyx embolization of spinal type IVb perimedullary spinal arteriovenous fistula through direct posterior spinal vein access. Surgical Neurology International 15, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39373004.
- Thrower S, Prajapati S, Holmes S, Schüler E, Beddar S. Characterization of the Plastic Scintillator Detector System Exradin W2 in a High Dose Rate Flattening-Filter-Free Photon Beam. Sensors (Basel) 22(18), 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36146135.
- Thrower SL, Al Feghali KA, Luo D, Paddick I, Hou P, Briere T, Li J, McAleer MF, McGovern SL, Woodhouse KD, Yeboa DN, Brock KK, Chung C. The Effect of Slice Thickness on Contours of Brain Metastases for Stereotactic Radiosurgery. Adv Radiat Oncol 6(4):100708, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34124413.
- Thrower SL, Kandala SK, Fuentes D, Stefan W, Sowko N, Huang M, Mathieu K, Hazle JD. A compressed sensing approach to immobilized nanoparticle localization for superparamagnetic relaxometry. Phys Med Biol 64(19):194001, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31422952.
- Sovizi J, Mathieu KB, Thrower SL, Stefan W, Hazle JD, Fuentes D. Gaussian process classification of superparamagnetic relaxometry data: Phantom study. Artif Intell Med 82:47-59, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28911905.
- Thrower SL, Shaitelman SF, Bloom E, Salehpour M, Gifford K. Comparison of Dose Distributions With TG-43 and Collapsed Cone Convolution Algorithms Applied to Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation Patient Plans. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 95(5):1520-1526, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27315666.
- Ali MA, Thrower SL, Hanna SJ, Coulman SA, Birchall JC, Wong FS, Dayan CM, Tatovic D. Topical steroid therapy induces pro-tolerogenic changes in Langerhans cells in human skin. Immunology 146(3):411-22, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26293297.
Review Articles
- Jacobsen MC, Thrower SL, Ger RB, Leng S, Court LE, Brock KK, Tamm EP, Cressman ENK, Cody DD, Layman RR. Multi-energy computed tomography and material quantification: Current barriers and opportunities for advancement. Med Phys 47(8):3752-3771, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32453879.
- Mathieu KB, Bedi DG, Thrower SL, Qayyum A, Bast RC. Screening for ovarian cancer: imaging challenges and opportunities for improvement. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 51(3):293-303, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 28639753.
Other Articles
- Kisling, K, Meyers, SM, Milman, R, Richardson, S, Chapman, C, Dupere, J, Eliason, G, Evans, SB, Juang, T, Lee, Y, Masten, J, Maues, J, Newman, R, Silosky, M, Song, C, Yashar, CM, Thrower, SL Pregnancy, cancer, and radiation—a modern refresher. JNCI Cancer Spectrum 10(2), 2026. PMID: 41604305.
Editorials
- Kisling K, Meyers S, Juang T, Richardson S, Lee Y, Milman R, Eliason G, Dupere J, Masten J, Chapman C, Evans S, Yashar C, Song C, Silosky M, Borges V, Newman R, Maues J, Thrower S. Pregnancy, Cancer, and Radiation – a Modern Refresher. Practical Radiation Oncology.
- Thrower, SL, McDonald, B, Kim, M. Highlights of the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. Practical radiation oncology 14(4):e301-e304, 2024. PMID: 38493371.
Abstracts
- Thrower S, Talpur W, Farhat M, Feghali KA, Curl B, Rooney MK, Haisraely O, Floyd W, Brock K, Chung C. Changes in High-Grade Glioma Target Volume and Prescription Dose Coverage between Postoperative MRI and MR-Simulation. ASTRO 2025 123(1):S112, 2025. e-Pub 2025.
- Haisraely O, Panthi B, Konstaniopoulou E, Langshaw HE, Thrower S, Talpur W, Elliott AM, Yeboa DN, Paulino AC, Li J, McAleer MFF, Perni S, Grosshans DR, Chung CC. Unveiling Early Radiation Effects on the Hippocampus: ADC Dynamics Reveal Microstructural Changes During Therapy. ASTRO 2025 123(1):S101-S102, 2025. e-Pub 2025.
- Zhao Y, Rhee DJ, Wang C, Netherton T, Thrower SL, McSpadden K, Wang X, Lee A, Moreno AC, Rosenthal D, Phan J, Wang H. Knowledge-based autoplanning improves efficiency and plan quality for larynx stereotactic radiotherapy. ESTRO 2025 206(S1):S2851-S2852, 2025. e-Pub 2025.
- Ty S, Kowalski-Muegge J, Farhat M, Panthi B, Langshaw H, Shankar MD, Talpur W, Thrower S, Goldman J, Custer J, Yankelov TE, Chung C, Hormuth DA. Developing a Computational Pipeline to Forecast and Spatially Map High-Grade Glioma Response to Radiotherapy Using Biophysical Models and Data-Driven Statistical Analysis. Society for Neuro-Oncology's 29th Annual Meeting and Education Day 26(Supplement 8):viii208, 2024. e-Pub 2024.
- Rooney M, Erickson L, Alghodhaifi H, Elliott A, Green H, Langshaw H, Panthi B, Talpur W, Thrower S, White V, Chung C. Multimodal Therapy for BRAF V600E Mutant Melanoma Brain Metastases: Characterization of Chronological Treatment Strategies and Associations with Overall Survival. Society of Neuro-Oncology's 29th Annual Meeting and Education Day 26(Supplement 8):viii173, 2024. e-Pub 2024.
- Wang X, Thrower S, Luo D, Farooqi AS, Mitra D, Andrew BJ, Guadagnolo A. Markerless tracking of tumor location for SBRT of sarcoma and melanoma metastases to the lung. ESTRO 2024 194:S4264-S4265, 2024. e-Pub 2024.
- A.K. Yoder, T. Netherton, X.A. Wang, T.Y. Lim, H. Wang, D. Luo, C. Wang, S. Thrower, A. Farooqi, D. Mitra, A.J. Bishop, B.A. Guadagnolo. Evaluating the Utility of Traditional Bowel Dose Constraints when Treating Abdominal and Pelvic Sarcomas with Preoperative Radiation Therapy. ASTRO 2023 117(2):e353-e354, 2023. e-Pub 2023.
- Thrower SL, Farhat M, Curl B, Cifter G, Shanker M, Beckham T, Ghia A, Swanson T, Wang C, Brock K, Chung C. The impact of radiation treatment dose to the tumor and normal tissues using post-operative MRI vs. MR-simulation for radiotherapy planning of high-grade glioma. 2023 SNO/ASCO CNS Cancer Conference, 2023. e-Pub 2023.
- Wang HC, Rhee DJ, Gao S, Balter P, Phan J, Lee A, Thrower SL, LaNeave S, Ellison D, Schipull E, Hurtt R, Netherton TJ, Lim TY, Mirkovic D, Luo D, Wang C, Tailor RC, Wong P, Wang X. Comparison of Flattening Filter Free (FFF) and Flattening Filter (FF) Photon Beam VMAT Plans for Head and Neck Stereotactic Radiotherapy. AAPM 2023 50(6):e455, 2023. e-Pub 2023.
- Farhat M, Butner J, Wang Z, Shanker M, Talpur W, Thrower S, Erickson L, Bronk J, Langshaw H, Tran BL, Yadav D, Elliott A, Wang C, Tawbi HA, Cristini V, Chung C. Evaluating novel imaging-based mathematical modeling prediction of immunotherapy response by individual melanoma brain metastasis and patient prognosis. 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting 41(16, Supplement), 2023. e-Pub 2023.
- Thrower SL, Vaccarelli M, Muruganandham M, Yang J. A Shifted Setup Method of Patient-Specific QA for Off-Centered Targets Treated On An MR-Linac. AAPM 2022 49(6), 2022. e-Pub 2022.
- Thrower S, Holmes S, Prajapati S, Schueler E, Beddar S. Output Constancy of the W2 Scintillator in Flattening Filter Free Fields in a Medical Linac. AAPM Annual Meeting 2021, 2021. e-Pub 2021.
- Thrower S, Feghali KA, Luo D, Paddick I, Brock KK, Chung C. MR Slice Thickness Impacts Detection and Delineation of Brain Metastases for Treatment Determination, Radiosurgery Treatment Planning and Follow-Up. ASTRO Annual Meeting 2020 108(3, Supplement):E680, 2020. e-Pub 2020.
- Thrower S, Brock K, Hasan Y, Chung C. Treatment Planning for Patients with Resected GBM: Is Post-Operative MRI Enough?. AAPM Annual Meeting 2020, 2020. e-Pub 2020.
- Thrower S, Luo D, Brock K, Chung C. MRI Slice Thickness Impacts the Detection and Treatment of Brain Metastases. AAPM Annual Meeting 2019, 2019. e-Pub 2019.
- Fonseca G, Verhaegen F, Thrower S, Gifford K. A Comparison Between Dosimetric Reporting Quantities for APBI Brachytherapy: MBDCA and Monte Carlo. AAPM Annual Meeting 2018 45(6):E495, 2018. e-Pub 2018.
- Gifford KA, Fonseca GP, Thrower S, Verhaegen F. Comparison of Two Commercially Available Model Based Dose Calculation Algorithms and TG-43 for APBI Brachytherapy. 2018 American Brachytherapy Society Annual Meeting 17(4, Supplement):S32, 2018. e-Pub 2018.
- Fonseca G, Thrower SL, Gifford K, Verhaegen F. SP-0331: Science slam: Report back from ESTRO mobility grants physics: Modern dose calculation algorithms in brachytherapy. ESTRO Annual Meeting 2018 127(S1), 2018. e-Pub 2018.
- Bi L, Sovizi J, Mathieu K, Stefan W, Thrower S, Hazle J, Fuentes D. Bayesian inference and model selection for physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. SPIE Medical Imaging 2018 10578(2), 2018. e-Pub 2018.
- Thrower S, Fuentes D, Stefan W, Sovizi J, Mathieu K, Hazle J. Sensitivity and specificity of a sparse reconstruction algorithm for superparamagnetic relaxometry. SPIE Physics of Medical Imaging 2018 10573(27), 2018. e-Pub 2018.
- Thrower SL, Kandala S, Fuentes D, Mathieu K, Stefan W, Kulp A, Hazle JD. Comparison of two reconstruction methods for bound-nanoparticle detection using superparamagnetic relaxometry. AAPM Annual Meeting 2018, 2018. e-Pub 2018.
- Thrower SL, Mathieu K, Stefan W, Romero Aburto R, Lu Z, Bast R, Sovizi J, Fuentes D, Hazle JD. Volumetric reconstruction of targeted nanoparticles for superparamagnetic relaxometry. American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017 77(13), 2017. e-Pub 2017.
- Sovizi J, Fuentes D, Thrower S, Stefan W, Hazle JD, Mathieu KB. Binary Classification of Superparamagnetic Relaxometry Data for Cancer Screening. AACR Annual Meeting 2017 77(13, Supplement):564, 2017. e-Pub 2017.
- Loupot S, Fuentes D, Stefan W, Sovizi J, Mathieu K, Hazle J. A 3D Reconstruction Algorithm for Superparamagnetic Relaxometry. AAPM Annual Meeting 2017, 2017. e-Pub 2017.
- Loupot S, Stefan W, Medankan R, Mathieu K, Fuentes D, Hazle JD. Sparse source reconstruction for nanomagnetic relaxometry. International Workshop on Magnetic Particle Imaging, 2016. e-Pub 2016.
- Loupot S, THan, MSalehpour, KGifford. Effects of material heterogeneity in APBI Brachytherapy treatment planning. AAPM Annual Meeting 2014 41(6):388, 2014. e-Pub 2014.
- Loupot S, Stafford J, Zinn P, Colen R. Imaging Genomic Texture Analysis Based on Haralick Features. ASNR Annual Meeting, 2014. e-Pub 2014.
- Loupot S, Ricter D, Hild S, Bert C. Characterization of the behavior of a carbon ion beam for the purpose of radiation therapy. SWAAPM Annual Meeting 2014, 2014.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified July 22, 2026