Dr. Susan Choi

Dr. Susan Choi is a medical oncologist and physician-scientist at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins — consistently ranked among the top cancer centres in the United States and world. With 25 years of combined clinical and research experience, Dr. Choi has devoted her career to improving outcomes for patients with breast cancer and lung cancer through precision oncology, novel immunotherapy combinations, and translational research that moves laboratory discoveries into clinical practice.

Johns Hopkins is home to one of the most sophisticated molecular tumour profiling programmes in oncology, enabling Dr. Choi to match patients with targeted therapies and clinical trials based on the precise genomic characteristics of their tumour. This approach has transformed outcomes particularly for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, and EGFR-mutant lung cancer.

Dr. Choi is a principal investigator on multiple National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded trials and has been instrumental in establishing several practice-changing protocols at Hopkins. Her bilingual ability in English and Korean reflects her dedication to serving diverse patient populations, including a significant proportion of Korean-American and East Asian patients who travel to Baltimore for her care.

Dr. Choi completed her MD at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she also undertook her PhD in Molecular Biology — a dual-degree that established her as a physician-scientist from early in her career. She completed internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, followed by a medical oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland.

Her fellowship training included laboratory research in tumour immunology alongside extensive clinical oncology exposure in breast and thoracic malignancies. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP). She has completed additional training in molecular tumour board methodology and genomic-driven oncology decision-making.

Dr. Choi's clinical practice spans the management of breast cancer and lung cancer at all stages, from adjuvant therapy following surgery through to complex metastatic disease. In breast cancer, she manages hormone receptor-positive disease with CDK4/6 inhibitor-based regimens, HER2-positive disease with trastuzumab-based combinations and trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd), and triple-negative breast cancer with immunotherapy and antibody-drug conjugates.

In lung cancer, her expertise includes targeted therapy for driver mutations (EGFR, ALK, ROS1, KRAS G12C, MET) and immunotherapy-based regimens for PD-L1-expressing tumours. She participates in the Hopkins Molecular Tumour Board, reviewing complex cases with molecular pathologists to identify actionable biomarkers.

Dr. Choi has active clinical trials in novel combinations of immunotherapy with targeted agents and in predictive biomarker development for immunotherapy response.

Johns Hopkins Hospital has a well-established International Services Office that assists patients from around the world seeking cancer care in Baltimore. Services include medical records review, appointment coordination, visa assistance, accommodation guidance, and language interpretation in over 50 languages. Dr. Choi's practice has treated patients from South Korea, China, Japan, Middle Eastern countries, and across Latin America.

Dr. Choi offers video second-opinion consultations for international patients who wish to review their pathology, genomic reports, and current treatment plan remotely before deciding whether to travel to Baltimore for treatment. She consults in English and Korean. Patients from abroad often arrive for initial evaluation and first treatment cycle, then return home where local oncologists implement the Hopkins-approved protocol under Dr. Choi's ongoing guidance.

Dr. Choi has received the ASCO Young Investigator Award and the NCI Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award. She has been named among the Best Doctors in America in Oncology and has received the Johns Hopkins Faculty Excellence in Clinical Research Award. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Clinical Cancer Research, and regularly chairs and presents sessions at the ASCO Annual Meeting and the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. She has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers in leading oncology journals.