Research Summary

Dr. Braunstein is a radiation oncologist with a clinical interest in the treatment of pediatric, central nervous system, and soft tissue malignancies. He has expertise in modern radiation therapy techniques including stereotactic radiotherapy (Gamma Knife, Cyberknife, Linac-based SBRT), intraoperative radiotherapy, and intensity modulated radiation therapy.

Dr. Braunstein earned his M.D. at New York University School of Medicine where he also obtained a Ph.D. studying molecular pathways by which cancer cells mediate response to radiation. He currently serves as Vice Chair and Clinical Director of Radiation Oncology. His research focus includes mitigation of early and late toxicity in treatment of pediatric malignancies as well as optimizing combination of immuno- and targeted-therapies in the management of primary and metastatic central nervous system malignancies.

Education

University of California, San Francisco, 06/14, Radiation Oncology
Brighman and Women's Hospital, 06/10, Internal Medicine
New York University School of Medicine, M.D., Ph.D., 06/09

Honors & Awards

  • 2020
    UCSF Rap Award
  • 2019
    ARRO Teacher of the Year Award
  • 2018
    UCSF Rap Award
  • 2017
    UCSF Radiation Oncology-Radiology Award
  • 2016
    ARRO Teacher of the Year Award
  • 2015
    UCSF Patient Care Fund Award
  • 2014
    RSNA Roetgen Research Award
  • 2013
    UCSF Exceptional Physician Award

Selected Publications

  1. Rusthoven CG, Staley AW, Gao D, Yomo S, Bernhardt D, Wandrey N, El Shafie R, Kraemer A, Padilla O, Chiang V, Faramand AM, Palmer JD, Zacharia BE, Wegner RE, Hattangadi-Gluth JA, Levy A, Bernstein K, Mathieu D, Cagney DN, Chan MD, Grills IS, Braunstein S, Lee CC, Sheehan JP, Kluwe C, Patel S, Halasz LM, Andratschke N, Deibert CP, Verma V, Trifiletti DM, Cifarelli CP, Debus J, Combs SE, Sato Y, Higuchi Y, Aoyagi K, Brown PD, Alami V, Niranjan A, Lunsford LD, Kondziolka D, Camidge DR, Kavanagh BD, Robin TP, Serizawa T, Yamamoto M. Comparison of first-line radiosurgery for small-cell and non-small cell lung cancer brain metastases (CROSS-FIRE). J Natl Cancer Inst. 2023 08 08; 115(8):926-936.  View on PubMed
  2. Vasudevan HN, Delley C, Chen WC, Mirchia K, Pan S, Shukla P, Aabedi AA, Nguyen MP, Morshed RA, Young JS, Boreta L, Fogh SE, Nakamura JL, Theodosopoulos PV, Phillips J, Hervey-Jumper SL, Daras M, Pike L, Aghi MK, Tsai K, Raleigh DR, Braunstein SE, Abate AR. Molecular Features of Resected Melanoma Brain Metastases, Clinical Outcomes, and Responses to Immunotherapy. JAMA Netw Open. 2023 08 01; 6(8):e2329186.  View on PubMed
  3. Morshed RA, Cummins DD, Nguyen MP, Saggi S, Vasudevan HN, Braunstein SE, Goldschmidt E, Chang EF, McDermott MW, Berger MS, Theodosopoulos PV, Daras M, Hervey-Jumper SL, Aghi MK. Genomic alterations associated with postoperative nodular leptomeningeal disease after resection of brain metastases. J Neurosurg. 2023 Jul 28; 1-10.  View on PubMed
  4. Subramanian S, Parikh P, Kra JA, Maldjian PD, Walther S, Kim S, DeNunzio NJ, Abrams MJ, Braunstein SE, Gunther JR, Mattes MD. Evaluation of a Radiation Oncology Microclerkship as a Component of Medical Student Education. J Cancer Educ. 2023 Jul 19.  View on PubMed
  5. Vargas E, Shabani S, Mummaneni PV, Park C, Rechav Ben-Natan A, Rivera JJ, Huang J, Berven S, Braunstein S, Chou D. Does surgery for metastatic spinal tumors improve functional outcomes in patients without spinal cord compression but with potentially unstable spines (SINS 7-12)? J Neurosurg Spine. 2023 08 01; 39(2):287-294.  View on PubMed
  6. Raleigh D, Chen W, Choudhury A, Youngblood M, Polley MY, Lucas CH, Mirchia K, Maas S, Suwala A, Won M, Bayley J, Harmanci A, Harmanci A, Klisch T, Nguyen M, Vasudevan H, McCortney K, Yu T, Bhave V, Lam TC, Pu J, Leung G, Chang J, Perlow H, Palmer J, Haberler C, Berghoff A, Preusser M, Nicolaides T, Mawrin C, Agnihotri S, Resnick A, Rood B, Chew J, Young J, Boreta L, Braunstein S, Schulte J, Butowski N, Santagata S, Spetzler D, Bush NAO, Villanueva-Meyer J, Chandler J, Solomon D, Rogers C, Pugh S, Mehta M, Sneed P, Berger M, Horbinski C, McDermott M, Perry A, Bi W, Patel A, Sahm F, Magill S. Targeted gene expression profiling predicts meningioma outcomes and radiotherapy responses. Res Sq. 2023 Mar 20.  View on PubMed
  7. Wu SY, Braunstein SE, Rubenstein JL, Sneed PK. Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma. Cureus. 2023 Feb; 15(2):e34817.  View on PubMed
  8. Morshed RA, Saggi S, Cummins DD, Molinaro AM, Young JS, Viner JA, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Goldschmidt E, Boreta L, Braunstein SE, Chang EF, McDermott MW, Berger MS, Theodosopoulos PV, Hervey-Jumper SL, Aghi MK, Daras M. Identification of risk factors associated with leptomeningeal disease after resection of brain metastases. J Neurosurg. 2023 Jan 13; 1-12.  View on PubMed
  9. Singh R, Valluri A, Didwania P, Lehrer EJ, Baliga S, Hiniker S, Braunstein SE, Murphy ES, Lazarev S, Tinkle C, Terezakis S, Palmer JD. Efficacy and Safety of Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Pediatric Malignancies: The LITE-SABR Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Adv Radiat Oncol. 2023 Mar-Apr; 8(2):101123.  View on PubMed
  10. Rogers CL, Pugh SL, Vogelbaum MA, Perry A, Ashby LS, Modi JM, Alleman AM, Barani IJ, Braunstein S, Bovi JA, de Groot JF, Whitton AC, Lindhorst SM, Deb N, Shrieve DC, Shu HK, Bloom B, Machtay M, Mishra MV, Robinson CG, Won M, Mehta MP. Low-risk meningioma: Initial outcomes from NRG Oncology/RTOG 0539. Neuro Oncol. 2023 01 05; 25(1):137-145.  View on PubMed
  11. Thomas HR, Braunstein SE, Golden DW, Du KL, Weiner AA, Bridges K, Vijayakumar S, McLean S, Edgar L, Fields EC. Milestones 2.0: Refining the Competency-Based Assessment of Radiation Oncology Medical Residents. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2023 01 01; 115(1):12-18.  View on PubMed
  12. Liu EK, Chen JJ, Braunstein S. Management of Adverse Radiation Effect Associated with Stereotactic Radiosurgery of Brain Metastasis in Multiple Sclerosis. Adv Radiat Oncol. 2023 Mar-Apr; 8(2):101150.  View on PubMed
  13. Kowalchuk RO, Niranjan A, Hess J, Antonios JP, Zhang MY, Braunstein S, Ross RB, Pikis S, Deibert CP, Lee CC, Yang HC, Langlois AM, Mathieu D, Peker S, Samanci Y, Rusthoven CG, Chiang V, Wei Z, Lunsford LD, Trifiletti DM, Sheehan JP. Stereotactic radiosurgery and local control of brain metastases from triple-negative breast cancer. J Neurosurg. 2022 Nov 25; 1-7.  View on PubMed
  14. Coleman C, Chen K, Lu A, Seashore E, Stoller S, Davis T, Braunstein S, Gupta N, Mueller S. Interdisciplinary care of children with diffuse midline glioma. Neoplasia. 2022 Nov 18; 35:100851.  View on PubMed
  15. Vasudevan HN, Susko MS, Ma L, Nakamura JL, Raleigh DR, Boreta L, Fogh S, Theodosopoulos PV, McDermott MW, Tsai KK, Sneed PK, Braunstein SE. Mutational Status and Clinical Outcomes Following Systemic Therapy with or without Focal Radiation for Resected Melanoma Brain Metastases. World Neurosurg. 2023 Feb; 170:e514-e519.  View on PubMed
  16. Vargas E, Mummaneni PV, Rivera J, Huang J, Berven SH, Braunstein SE, Chou D. Wound complications in metastatic spine tumor patients with and without preoperative radiation. J Neurosurg Spine. 2023 02 01; 38(2):265-270.  View on PubMed
  17. Morrison MA, Walter S, Mueller S, Felton E, Jakary A, Stoller S, Molinaro AM, Braunstein SE, Hess CP, Lupo JM. Functional network alterations in young brain tumor patients with radiotherapy-induced memory impairments and vascular injury. Front Neurol. 2022; 13:921984.  View on PubMed
  18. Prasad RN, Perlow HK, Bovi J, Braunstein SE, Ivanidze J, Kalapurakal JA, Kleefisch C, Knisely JPS, Mehta MP, Prevedello DM, Raleigh DR, Mishra MV, Roberge D, Rogers CL, Palmer JD. 68Ga-DOTATATE PET: The Future of Meningioma Treatment. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2022 07 15; 113(4):868-871.  View on PubMed
  19. Keek SA, Beuque M, Primakov S, Woodruff HC, Chatterjee A, van Timmeren JE, Vallières M, Hendriks LEL, Kraft J, Andratschke N, Braunstein SE, Morin O, Lambin P. Predicting Adverse Radiation Effects in Brain Tumors After Stereotactic Radiotherapy With Deep Learning and Handcrafted Radiomics. Front Oncol. 2022; 12:920393.  View on PubMed
  20. Vasudevan HN, Choudhury A, Hilz S, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Chen WC, Lucas CG, Braunstein SE, Oberheim Bush NA, Butowski N, Pekmezci M, McDermott MW, Perry A, Solomon DA, Magill ST, Raleigh DR. Intratumor and informatic heterogeneity influence meningioma molecular classification. Acta Neuropathol. 2022 09; 144(3):579-583.  View on PubMed

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