Yolanda Tseng, MD

Locations of Practice

Overview

Dr. Tseng earned her MD and completed her radiation oncology residency program from Harvard Medical School. She believes that cancer is best treated with a team approach that includes other physicians, nurses, and technical staff involved in treatment planning. She has conducted research in diverse areas, including how physician estimate patient prognosis and its effects on treatment decisions, and how tumor biological subtypes affect patient outcomes and the response to local therapy. She is interested in systematically evaluating how proton radiotherapy can be used to optimize patient care. “As treatment efficacy improves for many disease sites, the goal now is to minimize the long-term side effects of our treatments. My hope is that we can achieve this for our patients.”

Patient Care Philosophy

One of the most anxious times during a cancer diagnosis is determining the plan of action. This requires a team approach, in which both patient and physician learn from each other about their priorities, goals, and expectations. It is important for my patients to feel well informed about their treatment options, since this allows us to make the best decision together about their care.

Education and Training

College:  Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 2003

Graduate School: University of Cambridge, M.Phil., Cambridge, UK 2004

Medical Education: Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 2009

Internship: Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 2010

Residency: Radiation Oncology, Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, Boston, MA 2014

Selected Publications from a Total of 50

Tseng YD, Hoppe BS, Dedeckova K, Patel CG, Hill-Kayser CE, Miller DM, Maity A, Mendenhall NP, Mailhot RB, Yock TI, Baliga S, Hess CB, Winkfield KM, Mohindra P, Rosen LR, Tsai H, Chang J, Hartsell WF, Plastaras JP. Risk of pneumonitis and outcomes after mediastinal proton therapy for relapsed/refractory lymphoma: A PTCOG and PCG collaboration. Int J Radiat Biol Phys 2020. Doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2020.08.055. PMID 32866566.

Kim A, Stevenson P, Cassaday R, Soma L, Fromm J, Gopal AK, Smith S, Shadman M, Till BG, Lynch RC, Ujjani C, Shadman M, Warren EH, Menon M, Russell KJ, Tseng YD. Impact of double/triple hit pathology on rates and durability of RT response among patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma. Pract Radiat Oncol 2020; 10(1):44-52. PMID 31585205.

Tseng YD, Krishnan MS, Sullivan AJ, Jones J, Chow E, Balboni TA. How radiation oncologists evaluate and incorporate life expectancy estimates into the treatment of palliative cancer patients: a survey-based study. Int J Radiat Biol Phys2013; 87(3):471-8. PMID: 24074920. [published with editorial]

Tseng YD, Chen Y, Catalano P, Ng A. Rates and durability of response to salvage radiotherapy among patients with refractory or relapsed aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Int J Radiat Biol Phys2015; 91(1): 223-31. PMID: 25835625.

Hoppe B, Hill-Kayser CE, Tseng YD, Flampouri S, Elmongy H, Cahlon O, Mendenhall N, Maity A, McGee L, Plastaras JP. Consolidative proton therapy after chemotherapy for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma. Ann Oncol2017; 28(9): 2179-2184. PMID 28911093.

Tseng YD, Cutter DJ, Plastaras JP, Parikh R, Cahlon O, Chuong MD, Dedeckova K, Kahn, M, Lin SY, McGee L, Shen E, Terezakis S, Badiyan SN, Kirova YM, Hoppe RT, Mendenhall NP, Pankuch M, Flampouri S, Ricardi U, Hoppe B. Evidence-based review on the utilization of proton therapy in lymphoma from the Particle Therapy Cooperative Group lymphoma subcommittee. Int J Radiat Biol Phys2017; 99(4): 825-842. PMID 28943076.

Tseng YD, Gouwens NW, Lo S, Halasz L, Mezheritsky IV, Loggers E. Use of Radiation Within the Last Year of Life Among Cancer Patients. Int J Radiat Biol Phys2018; 101(1): 21-29. PMID 29487025.

Tseng YD, Nguyen MH, Baker K, Cook M, Redman M, Lachance K, Bhatia S, Liao JJ, Apisarnthanarax S, Nghiem PT, Parvathaneni U. Effect of host immune status on the efficacy of radiotherapy and recurrence-free survival among 805 Merkel cell carcinoma patients. Int J Radiat Biol Phys2018; 102 (2): 330-339. PMID 30191867.

Tseng YD, Hartsell W, Tsai H, Badiyan S, Rosen L, Rossi C, Kotecha R, Vora S, Vargas C, Larson G, Halasz LM. Proton therapy patterns of care among pediatric and adult patients with CNS tumors. Neuro-Oncology2018; 20(11): 1556-1557. PMID 30085163.

Cook M, Baker K, Redman M, Lachance K, Nguyen M, Parvathaneni U, Bhatia S, Nghiem PT, Tseng YD. Differential outcomes among immunosuppressed patients with Merkel cell carcinoma: Impact of immunosuppression type on cancer-specific and overall survival. Am J Clin Oncol2019; 42(1): 82-88. PMID 30211723.

Tseng YD, Ng AK, Wirth A. New tools of the trade: Parsing out the role of radiotherapy for early-stage diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Leukemia & Lymphoma2019; 60(4): 861-863. PMID 30481090

Lam TC and Tseng Y. Defining the radiation oncologist’s role in palliative care and radiotherapy. Annals of Palliative Medicine2018. doi: 10.21037/apm.2018.10.02. PMID: 30525768. [invited review]

To see more of Dr. Tseng’s publications, please click here.