Prof Rades is currently full Professor of Radiation Oncology and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Lübeck, Germany.

Prof Rades graduated in Medicine from the University of Hamburg in 1997. After his formal residency in Internal Medicine and Radiology, he started his residency training in Radiation Oncology at Hannover Medical University. After his board certification in Radiation Oncology, he became registrar and later consultant at the Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf.

He was appointed Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology in 2004 and Full Professor of Radiation Oncology in 2008 at the University of Hamburg. He then moved to the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein of Lübeck and was appointed Head of the Department of Radiation Oncology in 2010.

Prof Rades received his Board Certification in Palliative Medicine in 2006 and since 2007 he has been Chairman of the Palliative Radiotherapy Group of the German Society for Radiation Oncology (DEGRO). He is also Member of several committees of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) including Publication Committee, Education Committee, and CME Committee.

In 2008 Prof Rades received the Annual Award of the German Cancer Society for Clinical Studies in Radiation Oncology.

He was nominated an honorary member of several societies such as: the Belgian Society for Radiation Oncology (BVRO/ABRO) (2008), the Armenian Association for Radiation Oncology and Radiology (2010), the Georgian Association for Radiation Oncology (2011), the Slovenian Society for Radiation Oncology (2012), the Romanian Society for Radiation Oncology and Medical Oncology, (2012), Honorary Professor of the Hanoi Medical University, Vietnam (2013) and the Spanish Society for Radiation Oncology (2015).

In 2011 he was ESTRO representative within the project “European Partnership for Action Against Cancer” (EPAAC).

Prof Rades is an expert, consultant, and lecturer for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the areas of Radiotherapy of Head and Neck Cancer and of Bone Metastases.

Prof Rades is a reviewer for more than 20 journals and editorial board member of ASTRO news, BMC Cancer, Cancers, Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery, CNS Oncology, Journal of Oncology, Journal of Palliative Care, Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, Oral Oncology, Radiology and Oncology, Radiotherapy & Oncology, Strahlentherapie & Onkologie, The Open Breast Cancer Journal.

He has published more than 290 papers in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet, and Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, with a total impact factor of >1,000. Since 2005, Prof Rades has been invited speaker and has given teaching lectures at major meetings including ASCO, ASTRO, ECCO, ESMO, and ESTRO.

His major areas of research are palliative radiotherapy (metastatic disease), rare brain tumours, head-and-neck cancer, and radiochemotherapy. Of particular concern to him is the development of treatments, tailored to the specific needs of the individual cancer patient.