Odette Cancer Program

Administrative Assistant: Debbie Posner
Phone: 416-480-4951
Email: debbie.posner@sunnybrook.ca

Education:

• B.Sc., 1993, biochemistry, Queen's University, Canada
• MD, 1996, University of Calgary, Canada
• FRCP(C), 2001, radiation oncology, University of Alberta, Canada
• ABHPM, 2002, symptom control and palliative care fellowship, MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston, Texas

Appointments and Affiliations:

• Affiliate scientist, Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Sunnybrook Research Institute
• Assistant professor, department of radiation oncology, University of Toronto
• Radiation oncologist, Odette Cancer Centre

Research Foci:

• Skin cancer
• Gynecologic cancer

Research Summary:

Dr Barnes’s research focuses on advancing the practice of radiotherapy for non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC). She has been the head of the NMSC site group at the Odette Cancer Centre, as well as the radiation lead, since 2002. Her collaboration with basic scientists led to being co-principal investigator of two grants investigating non-invasive imaging methodologies to assess treatment response. She has been invited to deliver lectures nationally and internationally on NMSC treatment. Dr. Barnes has also published on physician communication in palliative radiotherapy practice. Her current interest is refining radiation treatment for gynecologic cancer. She is investigating this through identifying pathological risk factors for locoregional recurrence, with the goal of identifying subgroups of patients where adjuvant therapy can be de-escalated. She is also interested in the sexual health of patients after treatment for gynecologic cancers.

Selected Publications:

See current publications list.

1. Kwan JJY, Tsao M, Barnes EA. Hypofractionated radiotherapy to treat acne keloidalis nuchae. CMAJ 2021 193: E1595.
2. Barnes EA, Martell K, Parra-Herran C, Taggar AS, Donovan E, Leung E. Substantial lymphovascular space invasion predicts worse outcomes in early-stage endometrioid endometrial cancer. Brachytherapy 2021; 20(3): 527-535.
3. Barnes E, Sinclair E, Assaad D, Fialkov J, Antonyshyn O, Tsao MN. Radiation for below the knee skin cancers: a single institution experience. J Dermatolog Treat 2020; 31(6): 563-566.
4. Barnes EA, Parra-Herran C, Martell K, Barbera L, Taggar A, Leung E. Vaginal brachytherapy alone for stage II endometrial cancer patients with inner half cervical stromal invasion. Brachytherapy 2019; 18(5): 606-611.
5. Khan L, Breen D, Zhang L, Balogh J, Czarnota G, Lee J, Tsao MN, Barnes EA. Predictors of recurrence after radiotherapy for non-melanoma skin cancer. Curr Oncol. 2014;21(2):e326-329.