Walter J. Curran, Jr., MD, FACR
Chief of Piedmont Oncology Institute
Walter J. Curran, Jr., MD, FACR
Chief of Piedmont Oncology Institute
Walter "Wally" J. Curran, Jr. is a radiation oncologist specializing in the treatment of malignant brain tumors and locally advanced lung cancer. Dr. Curran started at Piedmont Healthcare in 2023, after serving as the global chief medical officer of GenesisCare. Previously, he was the executive director of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University and professor and chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. He is Professor Emeritus and L.W. Davis Endowed Chair Emeritus of Radiation Oncology and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Chair and Scholar Emeritus in Cancer Research.
Dr. Curran graduated with honors from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire and received his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. He became a radiation oncologist at the former Joint Center for Radiation Therapy in Boston. He completed his residency in the Department of Radiation Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and his internship in internal medicine at Presbyterian University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia.
Dr. Curran is a fellow of the American College of Radiology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology and has been awarded honorary memberships in the European Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology and the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology. The Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research listed Dr. Curran among the top 20 principal investigators of National Institutes of Health funding in 2012 and 2013, first in Georgia, and first among cancer center directors. He was named a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and Chair in Cancer Research in 2013. He received the Gold Medal Award from the American Society for Radiation Oncology in 2019.
In his research, Dr. Curran has led several landmark clinical and translational trials and is responsible for defining a universally adopted staging system for patients with malignant glioma.