Before becoming a radiation oncologist at the Ohio State University, Sung Jun Ma, MD, studied and worked with Anurag Singh, MD, at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center as a first-year medical student in the Radiation Oncology program at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Dr. Ma was inspired by this early work with Dr. Singh not only on radiation oncology, but the financial toxicity faced by patients and the opportunities for both patient care and research provided by incorporating artificial intelligence-based tools into personalized medicine.
He recently teamed up again with Dr. Singh on a grant proposal, currently under review for a multi-center project, to find new ways to help head and neck cancer patients who are struggling with financial toxicity after their diagnosis and treatment.
“I also received our departmental seed grant earlier this year to study how AI based on digital pathology could help identify patients with head and neck cancer who would have favorable versus poor outcomes,” Dr. Ma says. “Hopefully, our preliminary work will lead to larger funding opportunities and be further validated in multicenter studies and a prospective clinical trial.”
Dr. Ma still has close ties with Dr. Singh and Han Yu, PhD MBBS a biostatistician at Roswell Park, working together with them on studies looking at how incorporating AI can help improve patient outcomes.
“Our research collaboration has led to nearly 70 peer-reviewed manuscripts, several grants and multiple oral presentations by the time I graduated,” says Dr. Ma, who completed his radiation oncology residency at Roswell Park in 2023. “Our earlier work in financial toxicity formed the basis for our current, multi-center grand proposal under review. Our prior work in AI also led to my departmental seed grant earlier this year. My training at Roswell Park has set the foundation for my ongoing research projects and interests.”
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Those interests also include new treatment approaches, including proton radiation and adaptive radiation, and possible additional applications of AI. “AI based on digital pathology has been incorporated into (National Comprehensive Cancer Network) guidelines for prostate cancer as one of the validated tools for risk stratification, and this work was originally led by experts in our field,” he says. “We hope that we can leverage our unique position with access to big data and technology so that we can lead AI work in oncology.”
Looking back as an alumnus of Roswell Park, Dr. Ma has some advice for those currently studying and working here: “The days are long but the years are short. Time will fly by quickly and the relationships we build with colleagues and mentors will last a lifetime.”
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