James Larner, MD, serves as chair of the University of Virginia Department of Radiation Oncology. He also serves as president of the University of Virginia Physicians Group (UPG).
After graduating from the UVA School of Medicine, Dr. Larner completed residencies in internal medicine, with subspecialty training in hematology and medical oncology, as well as in radiation oncology at Thomas Jefferson University.
His clinical interests are neuro-oncology, including gamma knife radiosurgery, and thoracic oncology.
Dr. Larner is the past chair of the NIH Radiation Therapy and Biology Study Section, and for over a decade, he was a co-leader of the Genetics and Epigenetics program at the UVA Cancer Center.
Spending an estimated 75% of his time on research and 25% in the clinic, Larner is dedicated to both caring for cancer patients and finding ways to improve care.
His research interests include DNA damage-sensing pathways, radiation injury, radiosensitizers (drugs that make tumor cells more responsive to radiation therapy), prostate cancer, gliomas (brain tumors) and lung cancer.
When he is not in the lab or clinic, Larner plays racquet sports, restores houses and travels. He claims he spoils his son by allowing him to select where they travel each year. Some of Larner’s favorite destinations include Mauritius, Thailand, Andora, Uruguay and Japan.