Jacqueline B. Vo Appointed to Tenure Track in the Radiation Epidemiology Branch
, by Jennifer K. Loukissas, M.P.P.
Jacqueline B. Vo, Ph.D., R.N., M.P.H., has been promoted to tenure-track investigator in the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB). In this role, Dr. Vo will develop an independent, interdisciplinary research program on cancer survivorship that seeks to quantify treatment-related cardiovascular disease and subsequent malignancy risks among cancer survivors.
As co-principal investigator of the NCI-Kaiser Permanente Breast Cancer Survivors Cohort, Dr. Vo will continue to utilize large-scale population-based cancer registry and linkage data as well as develop new resources to pursue her highest priority research questions. Pairing her clinical and research expertise, she will address the long-term health of breast cancer survivors, the most common malignancy among all cancer survivors in the US. Most recently, she and colleagues provided the first evidence of increased long-term risk of cardiovascular disease, specifically cardiomyopathy/heart failure, among breast cancer survivors treated with anthracyclines and/or trastuzumab, compared to women who did not receive chemotherapy. Risks were highest among breast cancer survivors diagnosed prior to age 55, highlighting the importance of extending current treatment-specific clinical guidelines for cardiovascular surveillance to include longer follow-up and focus on high-risk patients such as younger women.
In her other research focus, Dr. Vo explores and quantifies health differences among minoritized cancer survivors to identify underlying reasons for these differences, including health inequities. Her recent analysis of SEER data revealed geographic disparities in cardiovascular disease mortality risk among breast cancer survivors.
She is particularly interested in the patterns that emerge once Asian American data are disaggregated from Pacific Islander data. In collaboration with Jaimie Shing, Ph.D., staff scientist in the Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch, Dr. Vo revealed disparities in incidence rates of human papillomavirus-associated cancers in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and other Pacific Islander populations when disaggregated by race and ethnicity.
Dr. Vo holds a B.S. and Ph.D. in nursing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Nursing, and an M.P.H. from Harvard University, T.H. Chan School of Public Health. During her Ph.D. training, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Future of Nursing Scholar, Susan G. Komen Graduate Trainee in Disparities Research, and recipient of the American Cancer Society Doctoral Degree Scholarship in Cancer Nursing. She subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in REB through the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program and was the first nurse appointed as an assistant clinical investigator in 2022. In 2023, Dr. Vo was selected for the competitive NIH Distinguished Scholars Program. She is credentialed as a nurse in the NIH Clinical Center.