2025 ASTRO Honorary Member

ASTRO has named Archie Bleyer, MD, as the 2025 ASTRO Honorary Member. Dr. Bleyer is a Clinical Research Professor in Radiation Medicine and The Knight Cancer Institute at the Oregon Health and Science University, Professor of Pediatrics at McGovern Medical School of the University of Texas, and Collaborator of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Global Burden of Disease at the University of Washington. He was previously at the National Cancer Institute, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. ASTRO recognizes him especially for his contributions to radiation medicine informed by his pediatric, adolescent/young adult (AYA) medicine, and public health background.

Having trained in separate pediatric, internal medicine, and radiation oncology programs, Dr. Bleyer found a way to combine what he had learned. Until the 2000s, he focused on AYA patients with cancer and especially the types that required both radiation and chemotherapy. The public health emphasis grew after he assessed that successes in pediatric oncology were being eclipsed by a progressive loss of AYA Americans to the violence of firearms, suicides and drug overdoses and other accidents. His interest accelerated upon discovering that the most rapidly increasing cause of death in young children in the United States was bullets.¹

Dr. Bleyer initiated the discipline of AYA Oncology and is thrilled to see the field progress independently, nationally and internationally, including recognition by radiation oncologists, surgeons, pediatric oncologists, medical oncologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, AYA life specialists, social workers, clinical trialists, and laboratory researchers. As of the last decade, AYA oncologists are graduating from AYA oncology Fellowships.

Regarding radiation medicine, Dr. Bleyer is excited about RO and the future of medicine in general because of the synergies, where different practices will accelerate the progress of each and together, not only in cancer diagnosis and treatment but increasingly in other health challenges. A meaningful nod to this trajectory, Dr. Bleyer appreciates how Charles R. Thomas, MD, FASTRO, named his department at the Oregon Health & Science University, Department of Radiation Medicine, with the implication that radiation has increasing applicability to nononcologic conditions, to now include cardiac arrhythmias, soft tissue disorders (keloids, Peyronie’s, Dupuytren’s disease), musculoskeletal disorders (osteoarthritis, osteoarthrosis, achillodynia, heterotopic ossification), CNS abnormalities (arteriovenous malformations, trigeminal neuralgia, seizure disorders), and eye conditions (Graves ophthalmopathy). He has also, in the other direction, challenged overuse of radiation vis-à-vis screening mammography.²

The aforementioned Dr. Thomas summarizes Dr. Bleyer’s profound impact: “Overall, his greatest medical accomplishment is starting the discipline of AYA Oncology in the late 1990s, which he continues to nurture. To be clear, Dr. Bleyer coined this term that is now normalized as part of cancer care including survivorship. It has become a global effort, for which he has been awarded multiple honors.”

For this unique ability, optimizing his position at the intersection of numerous areas of study, Dr. Bleyer will be recognized during ASTRO’s 67th Annual Meeting Awards Ceremony.