Hua-Jay J Cherng, MD

Dr. Hua-Jay “Jeff” Cherng is an assistant professor of medicine in the lymphoma program in the Division of Hematology and Oncology. He earned his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University and completed internal medicine residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He subsequently trained at MD Anderson Cancer Center for his hematology and oncology fellowship. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology.

Dr. Cherng is a clinical investigator who researches non-invasive response assessment tools such as biomarkers and imaging to predict outcomes of lymphoma patients. His focus is on circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), fragments of genetic material shed by lymphomas that can be sequenced and tracked to measure molecular response and minimal residual disease. His work on ctDNA and PET scans in lymphoma has led to publications in high-impact journals including Blood, Blood Advances, American Journal of Hematology, and British Journal of Haematology. He has earned abstract merit awards from the American Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference. His accomplishments during fellowship earned him a Waun Ki Hong Award for Achievement in Clinical Investigation. His research on ctDNA in patients with relapsed lymphoma receiving chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy is funded by a Conquer Cancer Young Investigator Award grant. He is a member of Southwestern Oncology Group Lymphoma Working Group and Committee. He was selected to participate in the Academy of Next Wave of Investigators for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and the American Society of Hematology Clinical Research Training Institute, competitive programs aimed at supporting academic and career development for promising clinical researchers.

Dr. Cherng’s goal is to design clinical trials with treatment guided by ctDNA; this would allow for treatment de-escalation in good responders to minimize toxicity and escalation in poor responders to maximize chance for durable remissions. Dr. Cherng sees patients with all types of lymphoma with an emphasis on aggressive non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphomas. He treats patients with standard-of-care treatments as well as on clinical trial protocols.