Our Team

Dr. Sue S. Yom, MD, PhD, MAS, FASTRO is the Irwin Mark Jacobs and Joan Klein Jacobs Distinguished Professor in Head and Neck Cancer Radiation Oncology and Professor in the Departments of Radiation Oncology and Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. She earned her medical degree from The University of Pennsylvania in 2002. She completed a simultaneous PhD in English. Dr. Yom completed a residency in Radiation Oncology in the Department of Radiation Oncology at The M. D. Anderson Cancer Center before joining the faculty at The University of California School of Medicine in 2007. During her assistant professorship, she completed a Master’s degree in clinical research. Her clinical practice and academic areas of interest include head and neck and skin cancers as well as thoracic malignancies.

Her departmental administrative roles are as Vice Chair for the Strategic Advisory Committee and as Chief of the Radiation Oncology Head and Neck, Cutaneous, and Thoracic Services. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Oral, Head and Neck Site Committee, Contact PI for NRG Oncology, and Full Member in Molecular Oncology within the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. At the national level, she is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, Chair of the NRG Oncology Head and Neck Cancer Committee, and a Board Member and the Guidelines and Protocols Committee Co-Chair for the Head and Neck Cancer International Group. She is a member of the NCCN Head and Neck Cancers guidelines committee as well as the Head and Neck Cancer Resource Panel, Education and Science Education Committees, and Education Committee of the Health Equity Diversity Inclusion Education Council of the American Society of Radiation Oncology. She previously served as the founding Chair of the Appropriate Use Criteria Committees of the American Radium Society, national Chair of the American College of Radiology Appropriateness Criteria Radiation Oncology committees, written and oral board examiner for the American Board of Radiology, member of the NCI Head and Neck Recurrent/Metastatic Disease Task Force, Co-Chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Head and Neck Steering Committee, and President of the American Radium Society.

Dr. Yom’s research interests include clinical trials, novel imaging, radioprotectants, quality of life and decision support, smoking cessation, and the oral microbiome. She is the Principal Investigator of NRG-HN002 and NRG-HN005, two NCI-supported studies testing reduced-intensity therapy for HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer and Co-PI of NRG-HN001, an international study of risk-adapted therapy for EBV-associated nasopharyngeal cancer. She is the North American chair of Nanoray 312, an international study investigating nanoparticle enhancement of radiation treatment. She is the principal investigator of several clinical trials involving radiation protectants and other interventions to reduce symptom severity and improve quality of life. She has received NCCN funding for patient decision making support and is co-PI on NCI R01 funding for studies of the oral microbiome. She is a co-investigator on NCI Cancer Moonshot and two California TRDRP grants supporting smoking cessation as well as grants for diversity initiatives. She is a frequently requested plenary speaker, program committee member, and media commentator. She has been author or co-author on over 250 publications in the medical literature. She has served on expert and organizing committees for numerous professional societies.

Redefining Possible