M.D., Ph.D.
Radiation Oncologist; Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, City of Hope Cancer Center Duarte
Doctorate of Medicine - University of Pennsylvania & Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Radiation Oncology - University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Yun Rose Li, M.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor and physician-scientist in the Department of Radiation Oncology and the Department of Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics at City of Hope® in Duarte, California. She also holds a joint appointment in the Division of Quantitative Medicine and Systems Biology at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix. Dr. Li combines patient care with research aimed at improving cancer treatment and quality of life.
Dr. Li earned her undergraduate degree at Duke University and her medical and doctoral degrees at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She completed her residency and research fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she studied how genetics, lifestyle and inflammation affect cancer risk and response to treatment. She has received several grants from UCSF to develop a phase 1 trial to improve patient access to care and to identify the barriers to early palliative care referrals for patients with metastatic cancer.
At City of Hope, Dr. Li focuses on understanding how inflammation and metabolism influence cancer and radiation therapy outcomes, with the goal of making treatment more effective while reducing side effects. Her clinical practice includes caring for patients with prostate, bladder, kidney, testicular and colorectal cancers. She also leads clinical trials, including studies exploring whether approaches such as intermittent fasting may help reduce radiation-related side effects.
Dr. Li has published widely in leading medical journals, received numerous national research awards and grants and presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology, American Society for Radiation Oncology, San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium/American Association for Cancer Research and Human Genome Meeting.
She is also an advocate for diversity, access to precision medicine and physician well-being.
In her free time, Dr. Li enjoys spending time with family, writing poetry, playing the piano, outdoor sports and traveling.