Quynh-thu Le

Biography

Quynh-Thu Le, MD received both her medical school and radiation oncology training at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She then joined the Stanford faculty in 1997. She became the Chair of the Stanford Radiation Oncology Department in September 2011. She also holds the Katharine Dexter McCormick & Stanley Memorial Professorship at Stanford University. Her research focuses on translating laboratory findings to the clinic and vice versa in head and neck cancer (HNC), specifically in the area of tumor hypoxia and salivary gland stem cells. Her research is reflected in both her publications and grant funding. Hers was one of the first groups that identified circulating biomarkers for tumor hypoxia in HNC, leading to the application of some of these markers in clinical trials, testing hypoxia targeted strategies. On the clinical side, she has led multicenter phase II and III clinical trials, testing the addition of novel drugs as either radiosensitizer or radioprotector with chemoradiotherapy in HNC. She has received grant support from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) Education & Development Award, R01 and R21 grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH). She was inducted into the Fellowship of the American College of Radiology (FACR), the American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (FASTRO) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM). She’s also received a distinguished alumni award from Caltech.

Research Interest

My laboratory research interest focuses on the identification of biomarkers for prognosis in patients with head & neck or lung cancers. Current research goals are: to validate the prognostic significance of certain hypoxia markers using clinical samples from a randomized phase III clinical trial and to monitor the tumor burden of HPV-related head & neck cancers during therapy by tracking circulating HPV DNA in the blood. We are also looking to target Galectin-1 (an immunomodulator that is over expressed in many cancers and is associated with tumor aggressiveness) in combination with radiation in solid tumors, and to identify a microRNA signature in lung cancer. Additionally, we are working to isolate human salivary gland stem cells and to manipulate key molecular pathways involved in radiation injury of salivary glands in hopes of rescuing salivary gland function after head & neck radiation therapy.