RADIATION ONCOLOGY

Research Summary

     Dr. Forman has made over 30-years of contributions to the fields of neutron physics, radiation measurements, and ion beam instrumentation development, and has held R&D program management positions at US Department of Energy and at the DOE National Laboratories. 

     At Stony Brook University he is principle investigator for a project to develop a miniature neutron generator (NG) for the brachytherapy treatment of cancer.  Feasibility for constructing a device that delivers sufficient dose from a nuclear reaction target at the end of an applicator needle was completed at SBU in 2005 as a PhD. thesis topic of the Radiation Oncology Department.  With co-investigators, he has studied the dose characteristics of high energy neutrons as correlated with modern Monte Carlo codes (MCNPX) that can follow the high linear energy transfer particles produced in the reactions.  He continues to study the correlation of high energy neutron treatments with tumor control.  Early work indicated that neutron beam therapy tumor control was not readily explained by killing of cancer cells.  Later work suggests that the neutron irradiation control was more likely related to the destruction of the tumor vascular system. 

     His company, Ion Focus Technology, Inc. has been the industrial sponsor of an Industrial Proliferation Prevention Program (IPP) that supports development of a commercial medical NG at the All Russian Institute for Automatics, Moscow, Russia.  This project is supported by the Russian Academy of Medical Science/Obninsk which has had the world's largest program of neutron treatment of cancers. 

     Dr. Forman remains a consultant with Brookhaven National Laboratory where he contributes to the development of radiation sensors used in homeland defense, arms control verification, and counterterrorism programs. He is a member of technical review committees for the DOE Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) program and served 3 years as an on-call radiation analysis expert for the Northeast Regional Reachback program which supports adjudication of suspect data taken by first responders.  Numerous awards for accomplishment have been from his peers (i.e. "Best Paper Award," 1997 annual meeting of the American Nuclear Society), national competition (i.e. 1992 "R&D 100 Award" for best US inventions), and the US Government (i.e. Director of Central Intelligence National Medal of Achievement in 1987).  Dr. Forman is currently CEO/Ion Focus Technology, Inc. (IFT), which he founded in 1993. 

Appointments

  • 1997-Pres. Chief Executive Officer, Ion Focus Technology, Inc
  • 1992-1997  Physicist,  Brookhaven National Laboratory, Applied Technology Division
  • 1986-1992  Manager, Special Programs, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.
  • 1983-1986  Program Manager for Foreign Nuclear Weapons Analysis, Office of Intelligence, US Department of Energy
  • 1980-1983  Chief, Technical Programs for Arms Control Verification, Office of International Security Affairs, US Department of Energy
  • 1968-1980  Deputy Group Leader, Nuclear Test Special Projects, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
  • 1966-1968  Captain, US Army Signal Corps, US Army Ballistic Research Laboratories

Recent publications:

  1. Vanier, P. and Forman, L.:  Adaptation of a neutron diffraction detector to coded aperture imaging.  BNL-63867, Invited paper presented at the American Nuclear Society 1997 Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, June 1-5, 1997. (Best Paper Award)

  2. Welsh K. T., Forman L., Reinstein L. and Meek A. J., "Design of a 14 MeV Neutron Source for Treatment of Radio Resistant Tumors", Presented at the 43st Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, Salt Lake City, Ut 2001. (Best Paper Award finalist)

  3.  K. T. Welsh , L. Forman, A. Meek and L. E. Reinstein, Design of a Miniature 14 MeV Neutron Source for Intensity Modulated Contact Treatment of Radio-Resistant Tumors,  North American Association of Radiology, Chicago, Il., Oct, 2001

  4. Welsh K. T., Forman L., Reinstein L. and Meek A. J., Ion Beam and Neutron Output Performance of a Portable Accelerator Based Brachytherapy Neutron Source, Presented at the 44st annual meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, Salt Lake City, Ut 2002

  5. P.E.Vanier and L. Forman, "Forming Images with Thermal Neutrons", Invited Paper at  the SPIE International Symposium on Optical Science and Technology,   Conference 4784A, Hard X-rays, Gamma Rays and Particles, Seattle, WA, July, 2002.

  6.  Forman, L., Vanier, P.E., and Welsh, K.T., "Fast neutron source detection at long distances using double-scatter spectrometry." SPIE International Symposium on Optical Science and Technology,   Conference 4784A, Hard X-rays, Gamma Rays and Particles, San Diego, CA.  August, 2003.

  7.  Leon Forman, P. E. Vanier, and Keith. E. Welsh, , "Distinguishing spontaneous fission neutrons from cosmic-ray background", Proceedings of the SPIE - Hard X-ray amd Gamma-ray Detector Physics V, 5541-7,  (217-225) Denver, CO., Ca., 4-5 August, 2004.

  8.  Leon Forman and Keith T. Welsh, "An analysis of fast neutron therapy: Implications for neutron brachytherapy treatment", Invited paper in the proceedings oft International Conference on Portable Neutron Generators and their Applications, Moscow, Russia, Oct. 18-22, 2004.

  9. K. T. Welsh, Allen Meek, L. E. Reinstein, Jay Burmeister, and Leon Forman. "Design and performance of a high current electron bombardment source neutron generator for cancer treatment," presented at International Conference on Portable Neutron Generators and their Applications, Moscow, Russia, Oct. 18-22, 2004.

  10.  Leon Forman and P. E. Vanier, "Time-of-flight coded aperture imaging using a pulsed neutron generator," Invited paper in the proceedings of International Conference on Portable Neutron Generators and their Applications, Moscow, Russia, Oct. 18-22, 2004.

  11. Peter E. Vanier and Leon Forman,"Demonstration of a directional fast neutron detector," Conference record of IEEE 2005 Nuclear Science Symposium, and Medical Imaging Conference paper N^-6, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Oct.,2005.

  12.  L Forman , P Vanier, I Dioszegi ,K Welsh, A Meek, L Reinstein, "Neutron spectra measurements for fast neuron brachytherapy effective dose evaluation" , 48th  annual meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, Orlando, FL., Aug. 2006.

  13. Leon Forman, "On the development of a miniature neutron generator for the brachytherapy treament of cancer."  Invited paper at 20th International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry, Ft. Worth, TX Aug. 2008, to be published as a separate volume by the American Institute of Physics.