100 Questions & Answers About Head and Neck Cancer

Elise Carper, RN, MA, APRN, BC, AOCN, Adult Nurse Practitioner in Radiation Oncology. Elise is the Director of Nursing, Radiation Oncology and Nurse Practitioner for Continuum Cancer Centers of New York, which includes Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Luke’s/Roosevelt Hospitals. She has been an oncology nurse her entire nursing career and has worked with patients with head and neck cancers receiving radiation therapy for the past 17 years. She did her undergraduate work at Columbia University and received her Nurse Practitioner degree from New York University in 1997. She is certified by the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) as an Advanced Oncology Certified Nurse. Elise has presented extensively both locally and nationally on care of patients with head and neck cancers. She has also written articles on the Nurse Practitioners role in radiation therapy, as well as chapters on symptom management of patients undergoing head and neck cancer treatment for medical texts. Elise is the author of the module on head and neck cancer for the recently released RONEE educational CD-ROM for radiation nurses, which won the 2006 AJN “Book of the Year: Electronic Media” award. She is a member of numerous professional organizations. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her partner.

Kenneth S. Hu, MD, Co-Director, The Institute for Head and Neck and Thyroid Cancer Director of Radiation Oncology Programs, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary; Attending Physician, Department of Radiation Oncology, Beth Israel Medical Center (BIMC) and St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center; Asst. Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Hu is a radiation oncologist with special expertise in head and neck brachytherapy and intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT). A graduate of Harvard Medical School-MIT, Dr. Hu completed a radiation oncology residency at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and fellowship training in brachytherapy/stereotactic radiosurgery at BIMC before coming on staff in 1999. A physician-researcher, Dr. Hu directs translational studies and conducts clinical trials that examine a variety of strategies to refine and improve radiation and chemotherapy delivery in head and neck cancer patients.

Elena A. Kuzin, RN, MSN, APRN, BC, AOCN, Geriatric and Adult Nurse Practitioner in Radiation Oncology. Elena is a Nurse Practitioner presently working in Radiation Oncology at Beth Israel Hospital in New York. She received her Nurse Practitioner degree from Hunter College–City University of New York in 1990. She is certified by the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) as an Advanced Oncology Certified Nurse and by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) in Advanced Practice Palliative Management and as a Gerontological Nurse Practitioner. For the past 15 years, her nursing career has focused on the care of oncology patients with the primary emphasis on palliative care and end-of-life issues. She recently wrote a chapter on “Superior Vena Cava Syndrome” in Understanding and Managing Oncologic Emergencies, which was published by the ONS. She is a member of numerous professional organizations. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her partner and their four children.