Karen Cheng, M.D.
- Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy
- Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy
- Stereotactic Radiosurgery
- Breast Cancer
- Central Nervous System Cancers
- Gynecologic Cancers
- Head and Neck Cancers
- Prostate Cancer
- Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology
Karen Cheng, M.D., is an assistant professor of radiation oncology at City of Hope® | San Bernardino Radiation Oncology, where she brings clinical expertise, compassion and cultural sensitivity to her work with every patient.
Dr. Cheng was inspired to pursue a career in health care because it combined her interests in bioengineering and health care technology with her desire to serve her community. She received her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine, then went on to complete an internship in internal medicine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, New York, and a residency in radiation oncology at University of Southern California/Los Angeles General Medical Center, where she also served as chief resident.
Given her commitment to developing new technologies in the field of radiation oncology, Dr. Cheng was drawn to City of Hope’s reputation for exceptional patient care, as well as its legacy of developing leading-edge clinical trials.
Dr. Cheng has multiple peer-reviewed publications in the field of radiation oncology, including a book chapter on the treatment of pineal region tumors. Her work has been recognized by a number of awards and accolades, including the American College of Radiation Oncology Excellence in Mentorship Award, the Keck School of Medicine DEI Leaders Scholarship and the Boston University School of Medicine Anne and David Mischel Cancer Research Award. In addition to English, she speaks Mandarin, Taiwanese and some Spanish.
Location
San Bernardino Radiation Oncology
Suite D
San Bernardino, CA 92404
Education & Experience
Degrees
- 2015–2019, Doctor of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
- 2011–2015, Bachelor of Science, Bioengineering, University of California at Berkeley, California
Residency
- 2024, Resident, Radiation Oncology, USC/Los Angeles General Medical Center, Los Angeles, California
Internship
- 2019–2020, North Shore University Hospital / LIJ Medical Center, Queens, New York
Professional Experience
- Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Radiology Oncology, City of Hope, San Bernardino, California
Awards & Memberships
Awards
- ACRO Excellence in Mentorship Award
- Keck School of Medicine DEI Leaders Scholarship
- Boston University School of Medicine Anne and David Mischel Cancer Research Award
- MassChallenge Startup Accelerator Finalist
- Clinton Global Initiative University Innovation Fund Awardee
- American Society of Clinical Oncology Cancer Interest Group Grant Awardee
- Chinese American Medical Society Grant Awardee
- Writers’ Square Writing Contest: 1st Place
- International Development Innovation Network Microgrant Awardee
- Maryland Symphony Tennis Tournament: 2nd Place
- Grand Challenges Canada Zika Innovation Award
- MGH/CAMtech Zika Hack-a-thon: Most Implementable Solution
- Writers’ Square Writing Contest: Finalist
- 2015 Regents’ and Chancellors’ Research Fellowship
- The Resolution Project Social Venture Competition: Semifinalist
- Student Opportunity Fund Grant Awardee
- Clinton Global Initiative University Selected Attendee
- E.C. Ted Friedel Scholarship
- Jane Smith and Larry FitzSimmons Alumni Leadership Award
- 2014 Regents’ and Chancellors’ Research Fellowship
- Gim and Chun Chan Leadership Award
- QUEST Scholarship
- Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society
- UC Berkeley Edward Frank Kraft Award
- UC Berkeley Regents’ and Chancellors’ Scholarship
- National Merit Finalist
- Intel International Science and Engineering Fair Finalist
- Radiological Society of North America Roentgen Resident/Fellow Research Award
Publications
- Cheng K, To S, Liu Z, Han HR, Lock D, Mitra P, Ragab O, Lim A, Momin F, Bian S. Clinical and dosimetric outcomes of a 3-fraction high-dose-rate brachytherapy boost for the treatment of locally advanced cervical cancer in a safety net hospital. Brachytherapy. 2025 Jan-Feb;24(1):162-170. doi: 10.1016/j.brachy.2024.11.003. Epub 2024 Dec 6. PMID: 39645406.
- Lukas L, Zhang H, Cheng K, Epstein A. Immune priming with spatially fractionated radiation therapy. Curr Oncol Rep. 2023 Dec;25(12):1483-1496. PMID: 37979032
- Woods K, Shen ZL, Xu Z, Zhang H, Natsuaki Y, Cheng K, Li V, Kim N, Ma L, Chang E. Hippocampal sparing radiation therapy for brain metastases: treatment techniques and clinical implementation. Chin Clin Oncol. 2023 Oct;12(5):56. PMID: 37964545.
- Vassantachart A, Cao Y, Shen ZL, Cheng K, Gribble M, Ye JC, Zada G, Hurth K, Mathew A, Guzman S, Yang W. A repository of grade 1 and 2 meningioma MRIs in a public dataset for radiomics reproducibility tests. Med Phys. 2023 Oct 10. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37815256.
- Jiao C, Ling D, Bian S, Vassantachart A, Cheng K, Mehta S, Lock D, Zhu Z, Feng M, Thomas H, Scholey JE, Sheng K, Fan Z, Yang W. Contrast-Enhanced Liver Magnetic Resonance Image Synthesis Using Gradient Regularized Multi-Modal Multi-Discrimination Sparse Attention Fusion GAN. Cancers (Basel). 2023 Jul 8;15(14):3544. PMID: 37509207.
- Vassantachart A, Ragab O, Miller K, Lock D, Stal J, Bian SX, Jang J, Fossum C, Han HR, Mehta S, Cheng K, Ballas LK. Knowledge and understanding of radiation therapy among patients with breast cancer from culturally diverse backgrounds at a safety-net hospital. International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics. 2023 May 1;116(1):176-181. PMID: 36720316.
- Heilmeier U, Cheng K, Pasco C, Parrish R, Nirody J, Patsch JM, Zhang CA, Joseph GB, Burghardt AJ, Schwartz AV, Link TM, Kazakia G. Cortical bone laminar analysis reveals increased midcortical and periosteal porosity in type 2 diabetic postmenopausal women with history of fragility fractures compared to fracture-free diabetics. Osteoporosis International. 2016 Sep;27(9):2791-2802. PMID: 27154435.
- Nirody JA, Cheng K, Parrish RM, Burghardt AJ, Majumdar S, Link TM, Kazakia GJ. Spatial distribution of
intracortical porosity varies across age and sex. Bone. 2015 Jun;75:88-95. PMID: 25701139. - Perry SL, Neumann SG, Neumann T, Cheng K, Ni Jennifer, Weinstein JR, Schaffer DV, Tirrell M. Challenges in nucleic acid-lipid films for transfection. American Institute of Chemical Engineers Journal, 2013 Sep;59(9):3203-3213.