Dr. Joseph Colasanto
Dr. Colasanto graduated from South Windsor High School in 1985. He attended the University of Connecticut from 1985 – 1989. During his time at UConn, he served the community as a volunteer at the South Windsor Ambulance Corp and at Manchester Memorial Hospital. After receiving his Bachelor of Science in Physiology and Neurobiology, he worked in research at the University of Connecticut Health Center designing and testing new pain medications at the cellular level. Then, he received a Master of Science in Physiology and Biophysics from Georgetown in 1993. He returned to Connecticut and taught Anatomy and Physiology at Manchester Community Technical College as Adjunct Faculty while continuing basic science research at the University of Connecticut. In 1995, he attended the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and received his M.D. in 1999.
After medical school, he completed his Internship in Medicine at Yale in 2000 and was awarded Intern of the Year. He was also the recipient of a research based award for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Best of ASCO 2003), and Radiological Society of North America Roentgen Resident – Fellow Research award for 2003.
He completed his residency at Yale in 2004 in the Department of Radiation Oncology. He started an academic career as Assistant Professor at Yale School of Medicine, Department of Therapeutic Radiology. During this time, his focus was treating adult and pediatric cancer patients with clinical interest in prostate cancer, lung cancer, thyroid cancer, head & neck cancer, and ocular melanoma. He was also involved in teaching medical students & residents, and involved in multiple academic committees and advisory boards. At Yale, he was a committee member of several national and local organizations, including CALGB Genitourinary committee member, RTOG Lung Committee Member, Endocrine Cancer Section Chief, VA (Veterans Affairs) Section Chief, Yale Thoracic Oncology Program member, Co-Chair of the Yale Quality Improvement Committee, Graduate Medical Education Committee at Yale, Clinical Advisor to the Gateway Community College, Editorial Board Member to the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, Reviewer to the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology & Physics journal and The Cancer Journal.
He is active in clinical research. He was Principal Investigator on 9 trials at Yale and 4 at Saint Francis Hospital. He published a book chapter on thyroid cancer and 17 medical publications (13 peer reviewed articles), including co-author of a landmark publication in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2006 that changed the way we treat certain lung cancers today. He has given well over 30 medical presentation for several organizations.
Currently, Dr. Colasanto is a Board Certified Radiation Oncologist and practices general radiation oncology of all adult cancer patients, with an emphasis on breast cancer, gynecological cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, head & neck cancer and palliative care. Dr. Colasanto is committed to delivering the most advanced radiation techniques to his patients while respecting the non-medical needs of his patients with a kind and comforting approach. He continues to be involved in medical research and also teaches at Manchester Community Technical College.