Yuan Rao, MD

Dr. Y. James Rao, MD is a board-certified radiation oncology specialist in the treatment of prostate cancer, gynecological cancers, and head and neck cancers. Dr. Rao serves as the Director of Brachytherapy and Assistant Professor at the George Washington University.

Dr. Rao has treated more than 1,000 patients with cancer and performed more than 500 brachytherapy procedures. He has served as a consulting Radiation Oncologist for the Office of the Attending Physician of the Congress of the United States.

Dr. Rao has been named a "Top Doctor" in the DC Metro by Washingtonian Magazine.

A native of Richmond, Dr. Rao attended Virginia Commonwealth University on a full presidential scholarship. In three years of college, he earned dual degrees in biomedical engineering and physics with the summa cum laude distinction. He also served as an emergency medical technician through the Tuckahoe Volunteer Rescue Squad in Richmond.

Afterwards, he attended medical school at Washington University in St. Louis, which was ranked second in the country. He graduated in the top third of his class, and was awarded the Robert Carter Award for medical research. Dr. Rao then received his residency training in Radiation Oncology at the prestigious Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology of Washington University in Saint Louis, where he served as Chief Resident. Dr. Rao has traveled to the University of California in San Francisco, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the Medical University of Vienna in Austria to learn more about advanced radiation techniques.

Dr. Rao is an author on more than 30 research papers in prestigious journals such as JAMA Head and Neck Surgery, Cancer, Radiotherapy and Oncology, The Journal of Urology, Gynecological Oncology, and The International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics. Furthermore, he has given several oral presentations at national meetings, and is the author of seven textbook chapters. He has served as an ad-hoc reviewer for several journals including Radiotherapy and Oncology, Advances in Radiation Oncology, and the Journal of Contemporary Brachytherapy. Dr. Rao has received grant funding from the Radiological Society of North America.

Dr. Rao sees patients and delivers radiation treatments at the Department of Radiation Oncology at 2150 Pennsylvania Ave, DC Level (Entrance at the northeast corner of 22nd and Eye Street). Dr. Rao also performs Y90 radio-embolization procedures with interventional radiology for the treatment of tumors of the liver at GW University Hospital.

Dr. Rao has a particular interest in the curative treatment of prostate, gynecological, and head and neck tumors using radiation. He also is interested in using advanced radiation techniques such as MRI-based radiation treatment, intensity modulated radiation, stereotactic radiation, and brachytherapy to reduce the toxicity of treatment while maximizing the probability of cure.