Research Summary

Spencer Behr, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Radiology and the Director of the Fellowship for both the Abdominal Imaging subspecialty and for the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at the University of California, San Francisco. He obtained his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston in 2005. In 2010, he completed a four-year Diagnostic Radiology residency at the Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts, followed by a fellowship in Abdominal Imaging and Nuclear Medicine at UCSF.

Dr. Behr has subspecialty training in abdominal imaging and nuclear medicine, and his research interests are focused on molecular and hybrid imaging translational research. He has selectively pursued interdepartmental projects to foster cross-disciplinary discussions and optimize the clinical impact of these projects.

Projects include: FDG PET in breast cancer, comparing breast cancer molecular subtypes with their respective FDG PET and breast MRI findings, CT findings in Celiac Disease, fluoro-18-fluorothymidine (FLT) PET as a potential marker of early response in patients with metastatic melanoma, CT appearance of malabsorption, and clinical applications of iodine-124 PET/CT in thyroid cancer.

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, BS, 06/1999, Biology and Chemistry
Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, MD, 06/2005, Medicine
Saint Vincent Hospital, Worchester, MA, Intern, 06/2006, Medicine
Lahey Clinic Medical Center, Burlington, MA, Resident & Chief Resident, 06/2010, Diagnostic Radiology
University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, Fellow, 06/2011, Abdominal Imaging
University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, Fellow, 06/2012, Nuclear Medicine

Honors & Awards

  • 2015
    Nominated for "Radiology Award for Outstanding Faculty Mentoring", UCSF
  • 2017
    Hideyo Minagi "Outstanding Teacher Award", UCSF
  • 2017
    Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Honored Educator Award Recipient, Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)
  • 2017
    2017 Excellence in Teaching Award, Academy of Medical Educators at UCSF

Selected Publications

  1. Houshmand S, Lawhn-Heath C, Behr S. PSMA PET imaging in the diagnosis and management of prostate cancer. Abdom Radiol (NY). 2023 Jul 26.  View on PubMed
  2. Wang SJ, Whitman J, Paciorek A, Le BK, Nakakura EK, Behr SC, Joseph N, Zhang L, Hope TA, Bergsland EK. Baseline tumor growth rate highlights the heterogeneity of well differentiated gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and predicts for increases in Ki67 index over time. J Neuroendocrinol. 2023 04; 35(4):e13260.  View on PubMed
  3. Li Y, Flavell RR, Juarez R, Chow M, Wu C, Tsai K, Daud A, Behr SC. Retrospective study of the incidence of sarcoidosis-like reaction in patients treated with immunotherapy. Clin Radiol. 2023 02; 78(2):e131-e136.  View on PubMed
  4. Huppert LA, Walker Z, Li M, Kim MO, Callan J, Brandman D, Majure M, Melisko ME, Rugo HS, Behr S, Chien AJ. Clinical characteristics and outcomes in patients with metastatic breast cancer and pseudocirrhosis: a single center retrospective cohort study. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2022 Nov 02.  View on PubMed
  5. Katz MHG, Shi Q, Meyers J, Herman JM, Chuong M, Wolpin BM, Ahmad S, Marsh R, Schwartz L, Behr S, Frankel WL, Collisson E, Leenstra J, Williams TM, Vaccaro G, Venook A, Meyerhardt JA, O'Reilly EM. Efficacy of Preoperative mFOLFIRINOX vs mFOLFIRINOX Plus Hypofractionated Radiotherapy for Borderline Resectable Adenocarcinoma of the Pancreas: The A021501 Phase 2 Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Oncol. 2022 09 01; 8(9):1263-1270.  View on PubMed
  6. Gumusay O, Huppert LA, Behr SC, Rugo HS. The role of percutaneous vertebral augmentation in patients with metastatic breast cancer: Literature review including report of two cases. Breast. 2022 Jun; 63:149-156.  View on PubMed
  7. An C, Obmann MM, Sun Y, Wang ZJ, Sugi MD, Behr SC, Zagoria RJ, Woolen SA, Yeh BM. Positive Versus Neutral Oral Contrast Material for Detection of Malignant Deposits in Intraabdominal Nonsolid Organs on CT. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2022 08; 219(2):233-243.  View on PubMed
  8. Jiang H, Muir RK, Gonciarz RL, Olshen AB, Yeh I, Hann BC, Zhao N, Wang YH, Behr SC, Korkola JE, Evans MJ, Collisson EA, Renslo AR. Ferrous iron-activatable drug conjugate achieves potent MAPK blockade in KRAS-driven tumors. J Exp Med. 2022 04 04; 219(4).  View on PubMed
  9. Thiruvengadam NR, Forde KA, Miranda J, Kim C, Behr S, Masharani U, Arain MA. Disconnected Pancreatic Duct Syndrome: Pancreatitis of the Disconnected Pancreas and Its Role in the Development of Diabetes Mellitus. Clin Transl Gastroenterol. 2022 02 01; 13(2):e00457.  View on PubMed
  10. Hope TA, Eiber M, Armstrong WR, Juarez R, Murthy V, Lawhn-Heath C, Behr SC, Zhang L, Barbato F, Ceci F, Farolfi A, Schwarzenböck SM, Unterrainer M, Zacho HD, Nguyen HG, Cooperberg MR, Carroll PR, Reiter RE, Holden S, Herrmann K, Zhu S, Fendler WP, Czernin J, Calais J. Diagnostic Accuracy of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET for Pelvic Nodal Metastasis Detection Prior to Radical Prostatectomy and Pelvic Lymph Node Dissection: A Multicenter Prospective Phase 3 Imaging Trial. JAMA Oncol. 2021 Nov 01; 7(11):1635-1642.  View on PubMed
  11. Sugi MD, Penna R, Jha P, Poder L, Behr SC, Courtier J, Mok-Lin E, Rabban JT, Choi HH. Müllerian Duct Anomalies: Role in Fertility and Pregnancy. Radiographics. 2021 Oct; 41(6):1857-1875.  View on PubMed
  12. Kelley RK, Joseph NM, Nimeiri HS, Hwang J, Kulik LM, Ngo Z, Behr SC, Onodera C, Zhang K, Bocobo AG, Benson AB, Venook AP, Gordan JD. Phase II Trial of the Combination of Temsirolimus and Sorafenib in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Tumor Mutation Profiling. Liver Cancer. 2021 Nov; 10(6):561-571.  View on PubMed
  13. Thiruvengadam NR, Miranda J, Kim C, Behr S, Arain MA. The Pancreatitis Activity Scoring System Predicts Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Infected Pancreatic Necrosis. Pancreas. 2021 07 01; 50(6):859-866.  View on PubMed
  14. House AE, Zebolsky AL, Jacobs J, Likhterov I, Behr S, Glastonbury C, Seth R, Heaton C, Knott PD. Surveillance Imaging Following Head and Neck Cancer Treatment and Microvascular Reconstruction. Laryngoscope. 2021 12; 131(12):2713-2718.  View on PubMed
  15. Chen KS, Lawhn-Heath C, Behr S, Juarez R, Whitman J, Paciorek A, Nakakura EK, Fidelman N, Feng MU, Bergsland EK, Anwar M. Outcomes after high-dose radiation in the management of neuroendocrine neoplasms. PLoS One. 2021; 16(6):e0252574.  View on PubMed
  16. Keenan BP, VAN Loon K, Khilnani AD, Fidelman N, Behr SC, Atreya CE, Oh DY. Molecular and Radiological Features of Microsatellite Stable Colorectal Cancer Cases With Dramatic Responses to Immunotherapy. Anticancer Res. 2021 Jun; 41(6):2985-2992.  View on PubMed
  17. Thiruvengadam NR, Miranda J, Kim C, Behr S, Corvera C, Dai SC, Kirkwood K, Harris HW, Hirose K, Nakakura E, Ostroff JW, Kochman ML, Arain MA. Burden of Ionizing Radiation in the Diagnosis and Management of Necrotizing Pancreatitis. Clin Transl Gastroenterol. 2021 04 27; 12(5):e00347.  View on PubMed
  18. Liu G, Mitra D, Jones EF, Franc BL, Behr SC, Nguyen A, Bolouri MS, Wisner DJ, Joe BN, Esserman LJ, Hylton NM, Seo Y. Mask-Guided Convolutional Neural Network for Breast Tumor Prognostic Outcome Prediction on 3D DCE-MR Images. J Digit Imaging. 2021 06; 34(3):630-636.  View on PubMed
  19. Raghavan K, Flavell RR, Westphalen AC, Behr SC. Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor Incidentally Detected on 18F-Fluciclovine PET/CT. Clin Nucl Med. 2021 Apr 01; 46(4):345-347.  View on PubMed
  20. Lawhn-Heath C, Salavati A, Behr SC, Rowe SP, Calais J, Fendler WP, Eiber M, Emmett L, Hofman MS, Hope TA. Prostate-specific Membrane Antigen PET in Prostate Cancer. Radiology. 2021 05; 299(2):248-260.  View on PubMed

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