Quynh-Thu Le is a Vietnamese radiation oncologist specializing in head and neck cancer. She is the Katherine Dexter McCormick and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor and chair of the department of radiation oncology at the

Stanford University School of Medicine Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Francisco in 1858. This ...

. Le co-directs the radiation biology program at the

Stanford Cancer Institute The Stanford Cancer Institute is an NCI-designated Cancer Center at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. It is one of eight comprehensive cancer centers in California. There are more than 400 faculty members of the Stanford Cancer Institute. Adul ...

Life

Le was born in Huế near the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone to a Buddhist family. Her father was a urologist who wished to remain in the country. After he was sent to a concentration camp and the Cambodian–Vietnamese War began, the family decided to they needed to escape. By obtaining false documents identifying them as a Chinese-Vietnamese family, they were able to leave the country as part of the Vietnamese boat people. After a perilous journey that involved being robbed by Thai pirates, the family arrived in Malaysia. They remained there in a beach camp supported by the International Red Cross for a month before being picked up by an Italy vessel and accepted as refugees. Le's family lived in Italy for two years while she completed middle school. In 1981, the family immigrated to

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

where she completed high school. Le majored in biology and chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. During her undergraduate studies, she completed three summer research fellowships. During one of these fellowships, Le's professor, Edwin S. Munger, encouraged her to research at a university and hospital in Durban which inspired her to pursue medicine. Le earned a M.D. from University of California, San Francisco in 1993. She decided to pursue radiation oncology after studying under Karen King-Wah Fu. She conducted an internal medicine internship at the Highland Hospital in 1994. Lee completed a radiation oncology residency at the University of California, San Francisco in 1997. In 1997, Le joined the

as a clinical instructor focused on brain and lung cancers. In 2004, she became a co-director of the radiation biology program at the

. She worked in the laboratory of Amato J. Giaccia. In 2011, she succeeded Giaccia as the chair of the department of radiation oncology. The same year, she was elected a fellow of the

American College of Radiology The American College of Radiology (ACR), founded in 1923, is a professional medical society representing nearly 40,000 diagnostic radiologists, radiation oncologists, interventional radiologists, nuclear medicine physicians and medical physicists. ...

. In 2013, Le was elected to the

Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, E ...

. In 2014, she was elected a fellow of the American Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology. Her research program focuses on radiation therapy in head and neck cancer. Le is the Katherine Dexter McCormick and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor and chair of the department of radiation oncology.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Le, Quynh-thu Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People from Huế People from Thừa Thiên-Huế province California Institute of Technology alumni University of California, San Francisco alumni Stanford University School of Medicine faculty Fellows of the American College of Radiology Members of the National Academy of Medicine 21st-century Vietnamese physicians Vietnamese emigrants to Italy Vietnamese emigrants to the United States 21st-century Vietnamese women physicians Vietnamese refugees Women oncologists Expatriate academics in the United States Vietnamese Buddhists