Dr. Sarah Gao is a specialty care physician board eligible in radiation oncology. She joined Radiation Oncology Associates in 2022. Dr. Gao is trained in all aspects of radiation oncology, and her practice focuses on the treatment of all types of cancers with an additional focus on the treatment of breast, gynecological, and head and neck malignancies.

Dr. Gao grew up in California and attended California State University in Los Angeles through the early entrance program, graduating magna cum laude with a degree in biochemistry. She went on to receive her medical degree from Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT, where she was a recipient of the Hirsch and Hsiung Fellowship for medical research. She completed her radiation oncology residency at Yale and served as chief resident.

Dr. Gao has experience across a variety of treatment modalities including intensity-modulated radiation therapy, volumetric modulated arc therapy, stereotactic body radiotherapy, Gamma Knife radiosurgery, gynecologic brachytherapy, total skin electron therapy and orthovoltage therapy. During her training, Dr. Gao’s research endeavors focused on using data science to further personalize the treatment of cancer patients. She has experience creating and managing clinical databases, performing advanced statistical analyses, and building supervised machine learning models. She has given multiple oral presentations at national meetings and has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and editorials.

Dr. Gao sees patients at Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax, VA, and at Potomac Radiation Oncology in Woodbridge, VA. Outside the clinic, Dr. Gao enjoys reading, listening to music, trying new recipes and spending time with family.