Preventing the “Killing Twice Effect”: What we can do to support Ukrainian oncology professionals during the war
Yuliia’s phone rings. She shows me the app warning of an imminent missile strike in her district in Ukraine, grateful that she does not need to respond—for the time being she is safe in the USA.
Dr. Yuliia Lozko is a radiation oncology resident at the National Cancer Institute in Kyiv. When the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine started on Feb. 24, 2022, Dr. Lozko evacuated from Kyiv to the relative safety of western Ukraine, to stay with her relatives. Now, her training continues with the radiation oncology department at Stanford University in a 6-month training and observership program.
Dr. Yuliia Severyn, a radiation oncologist also from Kyiv, but from the Ukrainian National Specialized Children’s Hospital, OKHMATDYT, arrived at Stanford for 3-months as a funded visiting scholar.
As approximately 75% of pediatric cancer patients have been evacuated from Ukraine, her department started treating adults, instituting and becoming the only department in Ukraine offering Total Body Irradiation (TBI) treated with Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT).
The experience-based knowledge and skills acquired at learning Stanford VMAT TBI technique will be invaluable when Dr. Severyn returns to her practice in Ukraine.
