Introducing Dr. Juno Choe

Hi, my name is Dr. Juno Choe, and I am the new radiation oncologist at Tri-Cities Cancer Center. I am incredibly excited about the opportunity to join Tri-Cities Cancer Center and to be able to serve the Tri-Cities community. I recently moved here from Yakima, WA where I had been the radiation oncologist at North Star Lodge, the cancer center for Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital. I moved here with my wife, Tammy, and 1½ year old daughter, Juliet. We also have a baby boy on the way and due in September. Much of our time these days is spent in raising our daughter, but I love playing golf and tennis. I also love music, and I am a pianist and a cellist who loves to play chamber music in small groups.

I am joining Tri-Cities Cancer Center during a tremendously exciting time. Tri-Cities Cancer Center boasts state of the art radiation equipment including the Varian Trilogy linear accelerator that was designed to deliver precise radiation treatments to tumors while minimizing dose to normal tissues. This allows us to reduce side effects and improve patient safety with a variety of different cancer types.

The Varian Trilogy also excels at delivering stereotactic radiosurgery, and the Tri-Cities Cancer Center has the longest track record for delivering this innovative treatment in the city. In combination with our BrainLAB radiosurgery system, we can deliver ultra precise radiation to tumors within the brain with minimal effects on the rest of the brain, often in a single treatment. Similarly, we can also deliver radiosurgery within the rest of the body, and Tri-Cities Cancer Center has an active sterotactic body radiosurgery program. This method of treatment is especially favorable for patients who are not candidates for traditional surgery or who do not wish to undergo surgery. Using this method, early stage lung cancers, liver tumors, and many other cancer types can be treated in 3-5 treatments commonly.

We also have an active brachytherapy program in which radioactive sources are placed close to tumors or areas at risk to help cure cancer. In particular, we have extensive experience with accelerated partial breast irradiation that allows us to treat early stage breast cancers all within the span of one week rather than the traditional 6+ weeks for whole breast radiation. In addition, brachytherapy can be used to treat prostate cancers and gynecologic cancers, either alone or in conjunction with stereotactic radiosurgery.

There are also many new exciting initiatives at Tri-Cities Cancer Center. We just launched our lung cancer screening program open to high risk members of the community with an extensive smoking history. Lung cancer screening with low dose CT scans have been shown in randomized clinical trials to reduce lung cancer related mortality, and this is a fantastic new service that is available to our community.

As you can see, there is much that the Tri-Cities Cancer Center has to be proud of. I am honored to be joining such a great institution and look forward to becoming part of your community.

Juno Choe, MD, PhD
Board Certified Radiation Oncologist
Tri-Cities Cancer Center