Matthew Lee, M.D.

Matthew Lee, M.D., MPH, is an assistant professor of medical oncology at City of Hope^® Cancer Center Duarte, specializing in diagnosing and treating patients with lung cancer, including including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). His commitment to compassionate, patient-centered care is deeply rooted in his personal experience with cancer in his family, shaping his approach to individualized treatment plans for every patient.

Dr. Lee earned his medical degree and Master of Public Health (MPH) in Epidemiology from the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center. He completed his internal medicine residency at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and his fellowship in hematology and oncology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center. Before joining City of Hope in 2024, he served as an attending physician in thoracic medical oncology at Montefiore Einstein, where he also served as director of inpatient oncology. He also holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Epidemiology from SUNY Downstate, reflecting his strong interest in public health, socioeconomic determinants of health, and real-world data utilization.

Dr. Lee’s research focuses on advancing precision medicine and improving outcomes for patients with lung cancer. His interests include targeted therapies for cancers with actionable genomic alterations, antibody-drug conjugates, immunotherapy, mechanisms of treatment resistance, and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and minimal residual disease (MRD) testing. He is particularly interested in using molecular biomarkers and real-world clinical data to personalize treatment, improve risk stratification, identify resistance mechanisms, and guide treatment decisions, including when to intensify or safely reduce therapy.

At City of Hope, Dr. Lee leads and participates in clinical trials evaluating novel therapies for patients with thoracic malignancies, including early-phase studies and investigator-initiated research. His clinical trial experience spans targeted agents, antibody-drug conjugates, immunotherapy, and emerging treatment combinations for molecularly defined lung cancers. He also investigates strategies to improve treatment selection and outcomes for patients with uncommon genomic alterations, acquired resistance to targeted therapies, and small cell lung cancer.

Dr. Lee has authored scientific publications and contributed to research published in journals including Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nature Communications, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Clinical Lung Cancer, and Cancer Cell. His work addresses targeted therapy, immunotherapy, treatment adherence, health disparities, molecular biomarkers, and emerging therapeutic approaches in thoracic oncology. He has presented research at national and international scientific meetings such as ASCO, ESMO and International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) related conferences along with also receiving the IASLC’s World Conference on Lung Cancer Early Career Education Award in 2023 and being part of the IASCLC Scholars Academy. In 2026, he received City of Hope’s Patient Experience Award and participated in the prestigious AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop.

Dr. Lee contributes to collaborative clinical research through organizations including ECOG-ACRIN, the Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN), the Hoosier Cancer Research Network, the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), and the Small Cell Lung Cancer Consortium. He is also involved in physician education and mentorship at City of Hope, helping train the next generation of hematology and oncology clinicians.

Outside of work, Dr. Lee enjoys traveling the world, exploring new cultures and cuisines, running, and hiking.