Rate My Professor Mikaela Dell'Oro

Dr. Mikaela Dell'Oro is an early-career researcher and qualified radiation therapist currently serving as Senior Lecturer in Medical Radiation Sciences at Curtin University, having joined the team in 2024. In this role, she teaches clinical and research skills to undergraduate students and coordinates units within the Medical Radiation Science discipline. Previously, she worked as a Research Associate in the ACQI group at The University of Western Australia, partnering with AIQ Solutions—a medical imaging analytics company—to develop and validate artificial intelligence models for the diagnosis and treatment assessment of advanced cancer patients. Dell'Oro holds an Adjunct Research Fellow position at UWA Medical School, affiliated with the UWA Centre for Medical Research and the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. She earned her PhD in Medical Radiation Science from the University of South Australia, supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. During her doctoral research, she conducted proton dosimetry planning at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, U.S.A., in 2019. Earlier in her career, she practiced clinically as a Radiation Therapist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia.

Dell'Oro's academic interests center on radiobiological modelling to enhance patient outcomes in radiation therapy, with emphasis on proton therapy for paediatric cranial cancers, risks of radiation-induced second primary cancers in out-of-field organs, Australian-context proton-to-photon treatment planning guidelines, PSMA PET/CT lesion response heterogeneity in prostate cancer biochemical recurrence, and AI applications in metastatic melanoma lesion quantification for radiotherapy prioritization. Notable publications include "Assessing the Heterogeneity of Response of [68Ga] Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT Lesions in Patients With Biochemical Recurrence of Prostate Cancer" (Clinical Genitourinary Cancer, 2024), "Modelling the influence of radiosensitivity on development of second primary cancer in out-of-field organs following proton therapy for paediatric cranial cancer" (British Journal of Radiology, 2023), "Proton-to-photon comparative treatment planning guidelines for the Australian context" (Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Oncology, 2023), "Lifetime attributable risk of radiation induced second primary cancer from scattering and scanning proton therapy—A model for out-of-field organs of paediatric patients with cranial cancer" (Radiotherapy & Oncology, 2022), and "Opportunities in Cancer Therapies: Deciphering the Role of Cancer Stem Cells in Tumour Repopulation" (International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2023). She has secured funding through the Channel 7 Children's Research Foundation Grant and contributes as an investigator to projects like "Clinical Evaluation of Deep Learning for Identification and Prognosis in Metastatic Prostate Cancer" (Department of Health, Western Australia) and "Novel AI approaches to direct personalised therapy in metastatic prostate cancer using PSMA PET-CT" (Royal Perth Hospital). Her 16 publications have garnered over 110 citations, influencing advancements in medical radiation science and oncology.