The Cancer Center Team

The Finney Cancer Center is operated by Texas Oncology. With 270 physicians on staff, Texas Oncology is the nation's largest network of medical professionals dedicated solely to the treatment of cancer and blood disorders.

James J. Petrikas, D.O., a board certified radiation oncologist, leads the Cancer Center team.

Dr. Petrikas joined Texas Oncology as a radiation oncologist in 2006. As a cancer survivor himself, he has a special interest in the physical and emotional concerns of long-term cancer survivorship.

He earned his medical degree at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine of Midwestern University and completed an internship at Lutheran General Hospital at Park Ridge, IL, where he received his own radiation treatment. “I was able to work alongside the doctors who participated in my case.”

Dr. Petrikas completed a four-year residency in radiation oncology at Northwestern University in Chicago, the last two as chief resident.

He and wife Mary Ann, a master’s degree trained physical therapist, are the parents of four active children.

Other members of the Cancer Center Team include:

• J. Michael Kerley, M.D., board certified in radiation oncology, medical oncology and internal medicine, will be a member of the team, although his primary assignments are at other Texas Oncology sites. Dr. Kerley was the chief resident in both internal medicine and radiation oncology during his medical training at Baylor College of Medicine.
  
  
• Dana Rosencranz, Ph.D., who lives with her husband on a ranch near Ladonia, is a medical physicist who works with the radiation oncologists in designing therapeutic and imaging techniques and treatment plans. She also is responsible for radiation safety.
  
  Dr. Rosencranz, a native of Bucharest, Romania, earned her Ph.D. in industrial physics at the University of North Texas and has post-doctoral training in medical physics. She has worked at Texas Oncology sites throughout the Metroplex.
  
  
• Kyle Koon, a Sulphur Springs native, serves as the team dosimetrist, the team member who specializes in the operation of radiation equipment and calculations of required radiation dosages.
  
  Koon is a graduate of the dosimetry school at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, considered the nation’s top program in that field. He joined Texas Oncology after serving as dosimetrist at the Laird Cancer Center at Nacogdoches Medical Center.
  
  
• Susan White, RN is in charge of the chemotherapy suite, where patients receive their prescribed chemotherapy. She also supervised chemo infusion therapy when it was administered through the Outpatient Clinic at Hunt Regional Medical Center.
  
  
• Gary Kessler, a member of the Medical Center laboratory staff, does the blood work for the Cancer Center.

Greenville resident Shannon Trad, seated at left, was one of the first radiation therapy patients in the Lou and Jack Finney Cancer Center.

The initial radiation treatments by Texas Oncology using the Medical Center’s Varian iX linear accelerator began October 7.

Seated next to Trad is Dr. Dana Rosenkranz, physicist with Texas Oncology. Standing behind them, from left, are other members of the Texas Oncology team: Tim Ochran, physicist; Kyle Koon, therapist/dosimetrist; Jack Bradley, therapist; Jeffrey Katzenmaier, radiation assistant and Dr. James Petrikas, radiation oncologist.

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