Julian Hong, MD, MS
Assistant Professor
Radiation Oncology
School of Medicine

Dr. Hong’s informatics research program focuses on the development and implementation of computational tools in the clinic to provide personalized, precision cancer care for patients. His group combines clinical domain knowledge with data science expertise to generate insights from real world data, develop actionable artificial intelligence-based tools, and evaluate the benefit of these advances in patient care. He led one of the first randomized controlled studies of clinical machine learning, developing an electronic health record-based algorithm that accurately directed care to reduce emergency visits and hospitalizations during radiotherapy.

Dr. Hong received his B.S. in Biomedical Computation and M.S. in Bioengineering from Stanford University. He completed medical school at the University of Wisconsin and residency in radiation oncology at Duke University, where he served as Chief Resident. Dr. Hong is board certified in both radiation oncology and clinical informatics. Dr. Hong serves on the NRG Cancer Care Delivery Research Committee and is an American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) representative for the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Big Data Subcommittee. He is a member of the Minimal Common Oncology Data Elements (mCODE) Council, the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium and Informatics Summit Scientific Program Committees, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) CancerLinQ Leadership Council.

Dr. Hong’s research has been published in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology, JAMA Oncology and the New England Journal of Medicine AI. His work has been recognized with the Radiation Oncology Institute (ROI) Publication Award, Bio-IT World Innovative Practices Award, and the Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for Learning Health Systems New England Journal of Medicine Travel Award.

• Natural Language Processing for Radiation Oncology: Personalizing Treatment Pathways.
  Pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine 2024 Lin H, Ni L, Phuong C, Hong JC
• Ctrl-C: a cross-sectional study of the electronic health record usage patterns of US oncology clinicians.
  JNCI cancer spectrum 2023 Sinha S, Holmgren AJ, Hong JC, Rotenstein LS
• Unlocking the Power of ChatGPT, Artificial Intelligence, and Large Language Models: Practical Suggestions for Radiation Oncologists.
  Practical radiation oncology 2023 Waters MR, Aneja S, Hong JC
• Multi-institutional Development and External Validation of a Machine Learning Model for the Prediction of Distant Metastasis in Patients Treated by Salvage Radiotherapy for Biochemical Failure After Radical Prostatectomy.
  European urology focus 2023 Sabbagh A, Tilki D, Feng J, Huland H, Graefen M, Wiegel T, Böhmer D, Hong JC, Valdes G, Cowan JE, Cooperberg M, Feng FY, Mohammad T, Shelan M, D'Amico AV, Carroll PR, Mohamad O
• Identification of Key Elements in Prostate Cancer for Ontology Building via a Multidisciplinary Consensus Agreement.
  Cancers 2023 Moreno A, Solanki AA, Xu T, Lin R, Palta J, Daugherty E, Hong D, Hong J, Kamran SC, Katsoulakis E, Brock K, Feng M, Fuller C, Mayo C, BDSC Prostate Cancer Consortium
• Operational Ontology for Oncology (O3): A Professional Society-Based, Multistakeholder, Consensus-Driven Informatics Standard Supporting Clinical and Research Use of Real-World Data From Patients Treated for Cancer.
  International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2023 Mayo CS, Feng MU, Brock KK, Kudner R, Balter P, Buchsbaum JC, Caissie A, Covington E, Daugherty EC, Dekker AL, Fuller CD, Hallstrom AL, Hong DS, Hong JC, Kamran SC, Katsoulakis E, Kildea J, Krauze AV,…
• Impact of Squamous Histology on Clinical Outcomes and Molecular Profiling in Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma Patients Treated With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors or Enfortumab Vedotin.
  Clinical genitourinary cancer 2023 Jindal T, Zhang L, Deshmukh P, Reyes K, Chan E, Kumar V, Zhu X, Maldonado E, Feng S, Johnson M, Angelidakis A, Kwon D, Desai A, Borno HT, Bose R, Wong A, Hong J, Carroll P, Meng M, Porten S, Aggarwal …
• Intracranial and Extracranial Progression and Their Correlation With Overall Survival After Stereotactic Radiosurgery in a Multi-institutional Cohort With Brain Metastases.
  JAMA network open 2023 Carpenter DJ, Leng J, Arshad M, Giles W, Kirkpatrick JP, Floyd SR, Chmura SJ, Salama JK, Hong JC
• Development and External Validation of a Machine Learning Model for Prediction of Lymph Node Metastasis in Patients with Prostate Cancer.
  European urology oncology 2023 Sabbagh A, Washington SL, Tilki D, Hong JC, Feng J, Valdes G, Chen MH, Wu J, Huland H, Graefen M, Wiegel T, Böhmer D, Cowan JE, Cooperberg M, Feng FY, Roach M, Trock BJ, Partin AW, D'Amico AV, Carroll…
• Healthcare provider evaluation of machine learning-directed care: reactions to deployment on a randomised controlled study.
  BMJ health & care informatics 2023 Hong JC, Patel P, Eclov NCW, Stephens SJ, Mowery YM, Tenenbaum JD, Palta M
• Analysis of Serious Adverse Event Reporting for Patients Enrolled in Cancer Clinical Trials During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
  JAMA oncology 2022 Ragavan MV, Legaspi N, LaLanne A, Hong JC, Small EJ, Borno HT
• Serial stereotactic body radiation therapy for oligometastatic prostate cancer detected by novel PET-based radiotracers.
  Urologic oncology 2022 Kwon DH, Shakhnazaryan N, Shui D, Hong JC, Mohamad O, de Kouchkovsky I, Borno HT, Bose R, Chou J, Desai A, Fong L, Friedlander TW, Koshkin VS, Aggarwal RR, Feng FY, Hope TA, Small EJ
• Assessing Unique Risk Factors for COVID-19 Complications Among Cancer Patients: A Multi-ethnic Cohort Study.
  Journal of immigrant and minority health 2022 Borno HT, Kim MO, Tolstykh I, Lin A, Hong JC, Yousefi S, Zhang S, McKay RR, Harismendy O, Razavi P, Cinar P, Rugo H, Koshkin VS, Rabow M, Wang C, Bailey A, Small EJ
• Prognostic Model for Intracranial Progression after Stereotactic Radiosurgery: A Multicenter Validation Study.
  Cancers 2022 Carpenter DJ, Natarajan B, Arshad M, Natesan D, Schultz O, Moravan MJ, Read C, Lafata KJ, Giles W, Fecci P, Mullikin TC, Reitman ZJ, Kirkpatrick JP, Floyd SR, Chmura SJ, Hong JC, Salama JK
• Severe extra-glandular involvement and pleural effusions complicating primary Sjogren's syndrome: a case report.
  Journal of medical case reports 2022 Abou Ziki MD, Taoutel R, Hong JC, Podell DN
• Implementation of machine learning in the clinic: challenges and lessons in prospective deployment from the System for High Intensity EvaLuation During Radiation Therapy (SHIELD-RT) randomized controlled study.
  BMC bioinformatics 2022 Hong JC, Eclov NCW, Stephens SJ, Mowery YM, Palta M
• A Clinical Reasoning-Encoded Case Library Developed through Natural Language Processing.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2022 Zack T, Dhaliwal G, Geha R, Margaretten M, Murray S, Hong JC
• COVID-19 Outcomes Among Patients With Cancer: Observations From the University of California Cancer Consortium COVID-19 Project Outcomes Registry.
  The oncologist 2022 Borno HT, Kim MO, Hong JC, Yousefi S, Lin A, Tolstykh I, Zhang S, McKay RR, Harismendy O, Cinar P, Rugo H, Koshkin VS, Rabow M, Wang C, Bailey A, Small EJ
• Opportunities to use electronic health record audit logs to improve cancer care.
  Cancer medicine 2022 Huilgol YS, Adler-Milstein J, Ivey SL, Hong JC
• COVID-19 outcomes in patients with cancer: Findings from the University of California health system database.
  Cancer medicine 2022 Kwon DH, Cadena J, Nguyen S, Chan KHR, Soper B, Gryshuk AL, Hong JC, Ray P, Huang FW
• Association of mental health diagnosis with race and all-cause mortality after a cancer diagnosis: Large-scale analysis of electronic health record data.
  Cancer 2021 Chen WC, Boreta L, Braunstein SE, Rabow MW, Kaplan LE, Tenenbaum JD, Morin O, Park CC, Hong JC
• An artificial intelligence framework integrating longitudinal electronic health records with real-world data enables continuous pan-cancer prognostication.
  Nature cancer 2021 Morin O, Vallières M, Braunstein S, Ginart JB, Upadhaya T, Woodruff HC, Zwanenburg A, Chatterjee A, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Valdes G, Chen W, Hong JC, Yom SS, Solberg TD, Löck S, Seuntjens J, Park C, …
• Assessing Clinical Outcomes in a Data-Rich World-A Reality Check on Real-World Data.
  JAMA network open 2021 Hong JC, Butte AJ
• Risk Stratification for Imminent Risk of Death at the Time of Palliative Radiotherapy Consultation.
  JAMA network open 2021 Wu SY, Yee E, Vasudevan HN, Fogh SE, Boreta L, Braunstein SE, Hong JC
• Characterizing chronological accumulation of comorbidities in healthy veterans: a computational approach.
  Scientific reports 2021 Hong JC, Hauser ER, Redding TS, Sims KJ, Gellad ZF, O'Leary MC, Hyslop T, Madison AN, Qin X, Weiss D, Bullard AJ, Williams CD, Sullivan BA, Lieberman D, Provenzale D
• Early salvage versus adjuvant therapy for treatment of prostate cancer following prostatectomy.
  BMJ evidence-based medicine 2020 Garriga M, Feng FY, Lee WR, Hong JC
• Closing the Gap Between Machine Learning and Clinical Cancer Care-First Steps Into a Larger World.
  JAMA oncology 2020 Kang J, Morin O, Hong JC
• High-Risk Adenomas at Screening Colonoscopy Remain Predictive of Future High-Risk Adenomas Despite an Intervening Negative Colonoscopy.
  The American journal of gastroenterology 2020 Sullivan BA, Redding TS, Hauser ER, Gellad ZF, Qin X, Gupta S, Robertson DJ, Weiss DG, O'Leary MC, Madison AN, Sims KJ, Williams CD, Hong JC, Lieberman D, Provenzale D
• Interrater Reliability in Toxicity Identification: Limitations of Current Standards.
  International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2020 Fairchild AT, Tanksley JP, Tenenbaum JD, Palta M, Hong JC
• Survival Advantage With Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Locoregionally Advanced Rectal Cancer: A Veterans Health Administration Analysis.
  Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network : JNCCN 2020 Spiegel DY, Boyer MJ, Hong JC, Williams CD, Kelley MJ, Salama JK, Palta M
• An Exploratory Radiomics Approach to Quantifying Pulmonary Function in CT Images.
  Scientific reports 2019 Lafata KJ, Zhou Z, Liu JG, Hong J, Kelsey CR, Yin FF
• Authors' Reply.
  Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network : JNCCN 2019 Hong JC, Salama JK
• Radiation Records in the National Cancer Database: Variations in Coding and/or Practice Can Significantly Alter Survival Results.
  JCO clinical cancer informatics 2019 Jacobs CD, Carpenter DJ, Hong JC, Havrilesky LJ, Sosa JA, Chino JP
• Increasing PET Use in Small Cell Lung Cancer: Survival Improvement and Stage Migration in the VA Central Cancer Registry.
  Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network : JNCCN 2019 Hong JC, Boyer MJ, Spiegel DY, Williams CD, Tong BC, Shofer SL, Moravan MJ, Kelley MJ, Salama JK
• Association of pre-treatment radiomic features with lung cancer recurrence following stereotactic body radiation therapy.
  Physics in medicine and biology 2019 Lafata KJ, Hong JC, Geng R, Ackerson BG, Liu JG, Zhou Z, Torok J, Kelsey CR, Yin FF
• Artificial Intelligence in Radiotherapy Treatment Planning: Present and Future.
  Technology in cancer research & treatment 2019 Wang C, Zhu X, Hong JC, Zheng D
• Radiotherapy Treatment Planning in the Age of AI: Are We Ready Yet?
  Technology in cancer research & treatment 2019 Zheng D, Hong JC, Wang C, Zhu X
• Predicting Emergency Visits and Hospital Admissions During Radiation and Chemoradiation: An Internally Validated Pretreatment Machine Learning Algorithm.
  JCO clinical cancer informatics 2018 Hong JC, Niedzwiecki D, Palta M, Tenenbaum JD
• A Nomogram for Testosterone Recovery After Combined Androgen Deprivation and Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer.
  International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2018 Spiegel DY, Hong JC, Oyekunle T, Waters L, Lee WR, Salama JK, Koontz BF
• Spatial-temporal variability of radiomic features and its effect on the classification of lung cancer histology.
  Physics in medicine and biology 2018 Lafata K, Cai J, Wang C, Hong J, Kelsey CR, Yin FF
• Long-term Clinical Outcomes of Nonoperative Management With Chemoradiotherapy for Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer in the Veterans Health Administration.
  International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2018 Spiegel DY, Boyer MJ, Hong JC, Williams CD, Kelley MJ, Moore H, Salama JK, Palta M
• Stereotactic body radiation therapy versus sublobar resection for stage I NSCLC.
  Lung cancer (Amsterdam, Netherlands) 2018 Ackerson BG, Tong BC, Hong JC, Gu L, Chino J, Trotter JW, D'Amico TA, Torok JA, Lafata K, Chang C, Kelsey CR
• High-volume providers and brachytherapy practice: A Medicare provider utilization and payment analysis.
  Brachytherapy 2018 Hong JC, Spiegel DY, Havrilesky LJ, Chino JP
• Intratreatment Response Assessment With 18F-FDG PET: Correlation of Semiquantitative PET Features With Pathologic Response of Esophageal Cancer to Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy.
  International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2018 Tandberg DJ, Cui Y, Rushing CN, Hong JC, Ackerson BG, Marin D, Zhang X, Czito BG, Willett CW, Palta M
• Association of Interim FDG-PET Imaging During Chemoradiation for Squamous Anal Canal Carcinoma With Recurrence.
  International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2018 Hong JC, Cui Y, Patel BN, Rushing CN, Faught AM, Eng JS, Higgins K, Yin FF, Das S, Czito BG, Willett CG, Palta M
• Classification for long-term survival in oligometastatic patients treated with ablative radiotherapy: A multi-institutional pooled analysis.
  PloS one 2018 Hong JC, Ayala-Peacock DN, Lee J, Blackstock AW, Okunieff P, Sung MW, Weichselbaum RR, Kao J, Urbanic JJ, Milano MT, Chmura SJ, Salama JK
• Data-Derived Treatment Duration Goal for Cervical Cancer: Should 8 Weeks Remain the Target in the Era of Concurrent Chemoradiation?
  JCO clinical cancer informatics 2017 Hong JC, Foote J, Broadwater G, Sosa JA, Gaillard S, Havrilesky LJ, Chino JP
• Mid-radiotherapy PET/CT for prognostication and detection of early progression in patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer.
  Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology 2017 Gensheimer MF, Hong JC, Chang-Halpenny C, Zhu H, Eclov NCW, To J, Murphy JD, Wakelee HA, Neal JW, Le QT, Hara WY, Quon A, Maxim PG, Graves EE, Olson MR, Diehn M, Loo BW
• Radiation dose and cardiac risk in breast cancer treatment: An analysis of modern radiation therapy including community settings.
  Practical radiation oncology 2017 Hong JC, Rahimy E, Gross CP, Shafman T, Hu X, Yu JB, Ross R, Finkelstein SE, Dosoretz A, Park HS, Soulos PR, Evans SB
• Increased Number of Beam Angles Is Associated With Higher Cardiac Dose in Adjuvant Fixed Gantry Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy of Left-Sided Breast Cancer.
  International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2017 Rahimy E, Hong JC, Gross CP, Hu X, Soulos PR, Shafman T, Connor HJ, Ross R, Yu JB, Dosoretz A, Evans SB
• Impact of Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy on Management of Early Stage Clear Cell and Papillary Serous Carcinoma of the Uterus.
  International journal of gynecological cancer : official journal of the International Gynecological Cancer Society 2017 Hong JC, Foote J, Broadwater G, Gaillard S, Havrilesky LJ, Chino JP
• Primary Versus Preoperative Radiation for Locally Advanced Vulvar Cancer.
  International journal of gynecological cancer : official journal of the International Gynecological Cancer Society 2017 Natesan D, Hong JC, Foote J, Sosa JA, Havrilesky L, Chino J
• The expanding role of stereotactic body radiation therapy in oligometastatic solid tumors: What do we know and where are we going?
  Cancer treatment reviews 2016 Hong JC, Salama JK
• A current perspective on stereotactic body radiation therapy for pancreatic cancer.
  OncoTargets and therapy 2016 Hong JC, Czito BG, Willett CG, Palta M
• Chest Wall Deformity in the Radiation Oncology Clinic.
  Anticancer research 2016 Stahl JM, Hong JC, Lester-Coll NH, Kann BH, Wilson LD, Higgins SA, Evans SB
• Dose escalation for unresectable locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer: end of the line?
  Translational lung cancer research 2016 Hong JC, Salama JK
• Radiation therapy in the treatment of minor salivary gland tumors.
  American journal of clinical oncology 2014 Salgado LR, Spratt DE, Riaz N, Romesser PB, Wolden S, Rao S, Chin C, Hong JC, Wong R, Lee NY
• Irradiation for locoregionally recurrent, never-irradiated oral cavity cancers.
  Head & neck 2014 Lok BH, Chin C, Riaz N, Ho F, Hu M, Hong JC, Shi W, Zhang Z, Sherman E, Wong RJ, Morris LG, Ganly I, Wolden SL, Rao SS, Lee NY
• Pulmonary ventilation imaging based on 4-dimensional computed tomography: comparison with pulmonary function tests and SPECT ventilation images.
  International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2014 Yamamoto T, Kabus S, Lorenz C, Mittra E, Hong JC, Chung M, Eclov N, To J, Diehn M, Loo BW, Keall PJ
• A nomogram to predict loco-regional control after re-irradiation for head and neck cancer.
  Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology 2014 Riaz N, Hong JC, Sherman EJ, Morris L, Fury M, Ganly I, Wang TJ, Shi W, Wolden SL, Jackson A, Wong RJ, Zhang Z, Rao SD, Lee NY
• Combined-modality therapy for rectal cancer: analysis of potential differences in disease presentation, treatment adherence, and treatment outcome according to race.
  American journal of clinical oncology 2014 Tonlaar N, Song S, Hong JC, Minsky BD, Chang DT, Polite BN, Liauw SL
• Risk of cerebrovascular events in elderly patients after radiation therapy versus surgery for early-stage glottic cancer.
  International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2013 Hong JC, Kruser TJ, Gondi V, Mohindra P, Cannon DM, Harari PM, Bentzen SM
• Chemoradiotherapy before and after surgery for locally advanced esophageal cancer: a SEER-Medicare analysis.
  Annals of surgical oncology 2013 Hong JC, Murphy JD, Wang SJ, Koong AC, Chang DT
• Migration of implanted markers for image-guided lung tumor stereotactic ablative radiotherapy.
  Journal of applied clinical medical physics 2013 Hong JC, Eclov NC, Yu Y, Rao AK, Dieterich S, Le QT, Diehn M, Sze DY, Loo BW, Kothary N, Maxim PG
• An automated method for comparing motion artifacts in cine four-dimensional computed tomography images.
  Journal of applied clinical medical physics 2012 Cui G, Jew B, Hong JC, Johnston EW, Loo BW, Maxim PG
• Reproducibility of four-dimensional computed tomography-based lung ventilation imaging.
  Academic radiology 2012 Yamamoto T, Kabus S, von Berg J, Lorenz C, Chung MP, Hong JC, Loo BW, Keall PJ
• Combined modality therapy for rectal cancer: the relative value of posttreatment versus pretreatment CEA as a prognostic marker for disease recurrence.
  Annals of surgical oncology 2012 Song S, Hong JC, McDonnell SE, Koong AC, Minsky BD, Chang DT, Liauw SL
• High retention and safety of percutaneously implanted endovascular embolization coils as fiducial markers for image-guided stereotactic ablative radiotherapy of pulmonary tumors.
  International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics 2010 Hong JC, Yu Y, Rao AK, Dieterich S, Maxim PG, Le QT, Diehn M, Sze DY, Kothary N, Loo BW