Dr. Kathy Rock

Dr. Kathy Rock is a Consultant Radiation Oncologist at the Bon Secours Radiotherapy Centre Cork in partnership with UPMC Hillman Cancer Centre, having joined the team in January 2024.

Dr. Rock graduated from University College Dublin with honours in 2007.  She completed internal general professional training at St. James's Hospital, Dublin and gained membership to Royal College of Physicians in 2010. She completed specialist training in Radiation Oncology at St. Luke’s Radiation Oncology Network and Cork University Hospital, gaining fellowship to the Faculty of Radiologists, Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland in 2014.Having completed a two-year advanced Radiation Oncology fellowship in breast and head and neck cancer at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Dr. Rock was appointed as Chief Fellow and was awarded the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology Scholarship for quality assurance work in breast cancer. She returned from Canada in 2018 and took up a post as a Consultant Radiation Oncologist in Cork University Hospital in February 2018.

Dr. Rock has been involved in developing clinical guidelines with the National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP), including Treatment of Patients with Breast Cancer: Radiation Oncology (2023) and NCCP guidance for medical professionals on the management of patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radiotherapy in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

She supports specialist training for Radiation Oncology in Ireland and is a lecturer for Specialist Registrars to the Radiation Oncology Training Programme of the Faculty of Radiologists. She was involved in the design and implementation of the updated National Radiation Oncology Curriculum and has been an examiner for the Faculty of Radiologists, RCSI for the final Radiation Oncology fellowship exams.

Areas of Specialist Interest:

• Breast cancer
• Head and neck cancer
• Skin cancer
• Clinical trials