The focus of Dr. Rosenstein’s research program is the identification of genetic and genomic factors associated with the development of specific outcomes resulting from radiation treatment of cancer. This work has been supported by grants from NIH/NCI, the DOD Prostate and Breast Cancer Research Programs and the American Cancer Society. Dr. Rosenstein was among the initial investigators to hypothesize that possession of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in certain genes may render patients more susceptible for the development of adverse effects resulting from radiotherapy and his group was the first to publish a genome wide association study (GWAS) to identify SNPs associated with responses to treatment with radiation. Dr. Rosenstein has expanded this research to analyze data derived from more than 20,000 cancer patients that received radiation therapy. In 1999, Dr. Rosenstein established and continues to co-lead the Radiogenomics Consortium (RGC), representing an international collaboration of 230 investigators at 135 institutions in 33 countries. The overall goal of the RGC, a National Cancer Institute/NIH-supported Cancer Epidemiology Consortium, is to develop a collaborative infrastructure to permit the large scale discovery GWAS, sequencing and validation studies that are essential for the identification of genetic factors associated with outcomes following radiotherapy and to develop assays to predict radiation response.
Dr. Rosenstein serves as a member of the Prostate Cancer Association Group to Investigate Cancer Associated Alterations in the Genome (PRACTICAL) consortium, a collaborative group of researchers whose goal is to identify genes that are related to the risk of prostate cancer. Through genotyping more than 120,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer and over 100,000 controls, this consortium has identified over 200 SNPs associated with prostate cancer susceptibility and predictors of disease aggressiveness. Dr. Rosenstein also serves as the Translational Research Study Chair for three RTOG/NRG Oncology protocols.
Dr. Rosenstein has been in the forefront of research in the utilization of “Big Data” involving the use of demographic, genetic, imaging, treatment and outcomes information. He has collaborated with bioinformaticians and statisticians to employ machine learning-based modeling approaches in radiogenomic studies. Dr. Rosenstein serves as a co-editor for “Machine Learning in Radiation Oncology: A Guide for Clinicians.” (Elsevier, 2022).
Dr. Rosenstein is a renowned educator who has received multiple teaching awards. Trainees from ten radiation oncology and medical physics residency programs participate in his 60-hour course in radiation and cancer biology. Dr. Rosenstein also provides lectures in radiation biology and radiation safety for radiology residents at the Mount Sinai Hospital and the joint Mount Sinai West/Beth Israel/Morningside programs and delivers presentations on radiation pathology and radiation biology & radiation safety/protection for trainees in The Mount Sinai Center for Radiation Sciences Education at Stony Brook University. Dr. Rosenstein has been and continues to serve as a mentor for numerous research studies performed by radiation oncology residents. He is the editor-in-chief of the widely used Radiation and Cancer Biology Practice Examination and Study Guide that he created during his tenure as chair of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Radiation and Cancer Biology Teaching and Curriculum committee. Dr. Rosenstein is a member of the Radiation Oncology Radiation/Cancer Biology Committee and has been a member of the Radiology Physics Committee of the American Board of Radiology charged with creation of the annual Qualifying Examination in Radiation and Cancer Biology and the Qualifying (Core) Examination in Radiology.