Phillip Kuo M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.R.

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Phillip Kuo M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.R.
Diagnostic Radiologist
Clinical Expertise
  • Theranostics
  • Molecular Imaging
Academic Appointments
  • Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology
  • Division Chief of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Diagnostic Radiology
  • Director of Theranostics, Department of Diagnostic Radiology
Clinical Teams
Diagnostic Radiology

Phillip Kuo, M.D. Ph.D., F.A.C.R., professor and division chief of nuclear medicine and director of theranostics at City of Hope® Cancer Center Duarte, is an internationally recognized physician-scholar committed to developing breakthrough technologies and therapies for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. He has helped design, conduct and run multiple clinical trials while serving as principal investigator on numerous industry- and National Institutes of Health-funded projects.

Dr. Kuo earned his combined M.D./Ph.D. at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He then completed an internal medicine residency at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, followed by a residency in nuclear medicine and radiology at Yale New Haven Hospital. Prior to joining City of Hope, Dr. Kuo was professor of medical imaging medicine and biomedical engineering at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he also served as chief of nuclear medicine.

Dr. Kuo, who has more than 140 peer-reviewed publications to his name, is vice president-elect of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging’s Brain Imaging Council and cofounded the International Society for Chinese Health Practices.

Location

Education & Experience

Board Certifications

  • American Board of Nuclear Medicine

  • Certification Board of Nuclear Cardiology

  • American Board of Radiology

  • Special Certification (CAQ) in Nuclear Radiology

Degrees
  • 2000, M.D., University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia
  • 1999, Ph.D., Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA
  • 1998, M.S. Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA
  • 1994, B.A. Chemistry, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Fellowship
  • 2003-2004, Nuclear Medicine Fellowship, Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT
Residency
  • 2005-2008, Diagnostic Radiology Residency, Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT
  • 2000-2003, Internal Medicine Residency, UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
Professional Experience
  • 2024-present, Professor, Division Chief of Nuclear Medicine and Director of Theranostics, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, City of Hope Cancer Center Duarte, CA
  • 2014-2024, Professor for the Departments of Medical Imaging, Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
  • 2020-2022, Senior Medical Director for Invicro
  • 2013-2020, Program Director for the Nuclear Radiology Fellowship, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 
  • 2010-2020, Section Chief of Nuclear Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
  • 2010-2014, Associate Professor of Radiology and Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
  • 2008-2010, Clinical Director of Breast Imaging and Associate Section Head of Nuclear Medicine, Southern Arizona Veterans Administration Hospital, Tucson, AZ, and Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
  • 2005-2008, Assistant Clinical Professor for Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
  • 2004-2005, Clinical Instructor for Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT

Awards & Memberships

Awards

  • 2024, Aunt Minnie Semi-finalist for both Most Influential Radiology Researcher and Image of the Year for "Minnie's Best of Radiology"
  • 2023-2024, Vice-President elect for the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Brain Imaging Council
  • 2023-present, Board of Directors for the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Therapy Center of Excellence
  • 2023-present, American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) Instructional Course Section Chair for Nuclear Medicine
  • 2023-present, Co-President of the International Society for Chinese Health Practices
  • 2023-present, Board of Directors for Intersocietal Accreditation Commission for Nuclear/PET
    2023-present, ACR Institute for Radiologic Pathology Faculty in Nuclear Medicine for the Four Week Radiologic Pathology Correlation Course
  • 2023-present, President of the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
  • 2022, Howard Kay Award Lecture at the 35th Annual Northeast Regional Scientific Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
  • 2022, Chairperson and speaker in Top rated oral presentation session at European Association of Nuclear Medicine Annual Meeting 2022, Barcelona, Spain
  • 2022-present, RSNA's Annual Meeting Program Planning Committee- Subcommittee for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
  • 2021-2023, Board of Directors for the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Physics Instrumentation and Data Sciences Council
  • 2022, Inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Radiology
  • 2022-2024, Member of Prostate Cancer Working Group 4 Committee
  • 2022, Keynote speaker for the 51st Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine
  • 2021, SNMMI Joint Committee for Appropriate Use Criteria for PET Amyloid/Tau Imaging
  • 2021, 3rd place poster (Neuroscience category) SNMMI Annual Meeting for "Multi-parametric optimization of dopamine transporter SPECT software
  • 2020, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the International Society for Chinese Health Practices
  • 2019, Co-organizer for 1st Annual Meeting of the International Society for Chinese Health Practices- Special Symposium on International Tai Chi Research (Beijing, China)
  • 2017-2022, Chairperson for the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Brain Imaging Outreach Working Group
  • 2018, Best Clinical Paper Award at the World Molecular Imaging Congress 2018
  • 2018, Sixth Annual Dr. Tapan K. Chaudhuri Lecturer at Eastern Virginia Medical School
  • 2017, Plenary speaker for the 2017 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (Atlanta, GA)
  • 2016 and 2018, Grand Saguaro Award for Outstanding Teaching of Medical Students (voted by medical students on radiology rotations)
  • 2014, Plenary session speaker at the AACR-SNMMI State-of-the-Art Molecular Imaging in Cancer Biology and Therapy Joint Conference (San Diego, CA)
  • 2008, Guest Editor for a special issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology entitled "Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis and MRI Contrast"
  • 2007, Co-chairman for First Annual Scientific Symposium on Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis and MRI Contrast (New Haven, CT)
  • 2007, FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) Visiting Professor Lecture Series (VPLS) "Gadolinium Contrast and Its Potential Causal Role in the Development of Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis (NSF)- A New Clinical Entity" (Silver Spring, MD)
  • 2000, Society of Fellows of the University of Virginia

Memberships

  • Radiological Society of North America
  • Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
  • American Roentgen Ray Society
  • American College of Radiology
  • American College of Nuclear Medicine
  • International Society for Chinese Health Practices

Publications

  • Kuo, P.H.; Cella, P.; Chou, Y.-H.; Arkhipenko, A.; Fisher, J.M. Optimal DaTQUANT Thresholds for Diagnostic Accuracy of Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) and Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Tomography 2024, 10, 1608-1621. https://doi.org/10.3390/tomography10100119
  • Kuo, P. H., Morris, M. J., Hesterman, J., Kendi, A. T., Rahbar, K., Wei, X. X., Fang, B., Adra, N., Garje, R., Michalski, J. M., Chi, K., de Bono, J., Fizazi, K., Krause, B., Sartor, O., Tagawa, S. T., Ghebremariam, S., Brackman, M., Wong, C. C., Catafau, A. M., … Herrmann, K. (2024). Quantitative 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET and Clinical Outcomes in Metastatic Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer Following 177Lu-PSMA-617 (VISION Trial). Radiology, 312(2), e233460. https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.233460
  • Kuo, P. H., Esposito, G., Ulaner, G. A., Yoo, D., Zukotynski, K., Ravizzini, G. C., Penny, R., Miller, M. P., Chau, A., Davis, P., Chapin, B. F., Schuster, D. M., & SPOTLIGHT and LIGHTHOUSE study groups (2024). Interreader and Intrareader Reproducibility of 18F-Flotufolastat Image Interpretation in Patients with Newly Diagnosed or Recurrent Prostate Cancer: Data from Two Phase 3 Prospective Multicenter Studies. Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine, 65(8), 1239–1243. https://doi.org/10.2967/jnumed.123.267306
  • Pells, S., Zeraatkar, N., Kalluri, K. S., Moore, S. C., May, M., Furenlid, L. R., Kupinski, M. A., Kuo, P. H., & King, M. A. (2024). Correction of multiplexing artefacts in multi-pinhole SPECT through temporal shuttering, de-multiplexing of projections, and alternating reconstruction. Physics in medicine and biology, 69(12), 10.1088/1361-6560/ad4f47. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6560/ad4f47 
  • Chen, Z., Yuan, N. ., Taylor-Piliae, R., Rubio, M., Yang, Y., Horton, A., Robles, D., Valenzuela, R., Hu, C., Roveda, J., & Kuo, P. (2024). The Wearable Sensors and Virtual Reality for Tai Chi and Qigong Intervention Research (We Sense Tai Chi): Feasibility Study. The Journal of the International Society of Chinese Health Practices, 3(1). Retrieved from http://www.ischp.org/journal/index.php/jischp/article/view/216
  • Xhima, K., Ottoy, J., Gibson, E., Zukotynski, K., Scott, C., Feliciano, G. J., Adamo, S., Kuo, P. H., Borrie, M. J., Chertkow, H., Frayne, R., Laforce, R., Jr, Noseworthy, M. D., Prato, F. S., Sahlas, D. J., Smith, E. E., Sossi, V., Thiel, A., Soucy, J. P., Tardif, J. C., … Medical Imaging Trials Network of Canada (MITNEC) (2024). Distinct spatial contributions of amyloid pathology and cerebral small vessel disease to hippocampal morphology. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 20(5), 3687–3695. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.13791
  • Lowentritt, B. H., Jani, A. B., Helfand, B. T., Uchio, E. M., Morris, M. A., Michalski, J. M., Chau, A., Davis, P., Chapin, B. F., Schuster, D. M., & SPOTLIGHT Study Group (2024). Impact of Clinical Factors on 18F-Flotufolastat Detection Rates in Men With Recurrent Prostate Cancer: Exploratory Analysis of the Phase 3 SPOTLIGHT Study. Advances in radiation oncology, 9(8), 101532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adro.2024.101532
  • Jagust, W. J., Mattay, V. S., Krainak, D. M., Wang, S. J., Weidner, L. D., Hofling, A. A., Koo, H., Hsieh, P., Kuo, P. H., Farrar, G., & Marzella, L. (2024). Quantitative Brain Amyloid PET. Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine, 65(5), 670–678. https://doi.org/10.2967/jnumed.123.265766
  • Kiess, A. P., O'Donoghue, J., Uribe, C., Bodei, L., Hobbs, R. F., Hesterman, J., Kesner, A. L., Sgouros, G., & RPT-TEC group (2024). How Can Radiopharmaceutical Therapies Reach Their Full Potential? Improving Dose Reporting and Phase I Clinical Trial Design. Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 42(15), 1734–1737. https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.23.01241
  • Kuo, P. H., Covington, M. F., Lee, D. J., Wong, T. Z., & Pandit-Taskar, N. (2024). Survey of Clinical Protocols for the Use of 177Lu-PSMA-617 in the United States. Journal of nuclear medicine technology, 52(3), 208–211. https://doi.org/10.2967/jnmt.123.266769