Dr. William T. Tran MRT(T), MSc., PhD
Senior Research Fellow, Radiotherapy and Oncology
Summary
My research is to identify predictive and prognostic biomarkers in breast cancer.
Specifically, I am interested in exploring quantitative imaging biomarkers from digital pathology and specimen-based markers to aid in treatment decisions for women with high-risk breast cancer. The primary endpoint of my research will be improved patient outcomes by using biomarker measurements for adaptive and response-guided cancer treatments.
Within this framework, my research is also focused on understanding treatment and survival outcomes associated with biological variances in early-stage invasive breast cancer. As part of a team of physician investigators and scientists, I am working alongside clinical experts to map the genetic and biological characteristics associated with chemotherapy resistance and radiation refractory breast cancer.
Research
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Publications
Tran WT, Childs C, Probst H, Farhat G, Czarnota GJ. Imaging Biomarkers for
Precision Medicine in Locally Advanced Breast Cancer. J Med Imaging Radiat Sci. 2018 Dec;49(4):342-351. doi: 10.1016/j.jmir.2017.09.006. Epub 2018 Apr 1. PubMed PMID: 30514549.
Sannachi L, Gangeh M, Tadayyon H, Sadeghi-Naini A, Gandhi S, Wright FC,
Slodkowska E, Curpen B, Tran W, Czarnota GJ. Response monitoring of breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy using quantitative ultrasound, texture, and molecular features. PLoS One. 2018 Jan 3;13(1):e0189634. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189634. eCollection 2018. PubMed PMID: 29298305; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5751990.
El Kaffas A, Gangeh MJ, Farhat G, Tran WT, Hashim A, Giles A, Czarnota GJ.
Tumour Vascular Shutdown and Cell Death Following Ultrasound-Microbubble Enhanced Radiation Therapy. Theranostics. 2018 Jan 1;8(2):314-327. doi: 10.7150/thno.19010. eCollection 2018. PubMed PMID: 29290810; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5743550.
Sadeghi-Naini A, Suraweera H, Tran WT, Hadizad F, Bruni G, Rastegar RF, Curpen B, Czarnota GJ. Breast-Lesion Characterization using Textural Features of Quantitative Ultrasound Parametric Maps. Sci Rep. 2017 Oct 20;7(1):13638. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-13977-x. PubMed PMID: 29057899; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5651882.
Sadeghi-Naini A, Sannachi L, Tadayyon H, Tran WT, Slodkowska E, Trudeau M, Gandhi S, Pritchard K, Kolios MC, Czarnota GJ. Chemotherapy-Response Monitoring of Breast Cancer Patients Using Quantitative Ultrasound-Based Intra Tumour Heterogeneities. Sci Rep. 2017 Sep 4;7(1):10352. doi: 10.1038/s41598 017-09678-0. PubMed PMID: 28871171; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5583340.
Tadayyon H, Sannachi L, Gangeh M, Sadeghi-Naini A, Tran W, Trudeau ME,
Pritchard K, Ghandi S, Verma S, Czarnota GJ. Correction: Quantitative ultrasound
assessment of breast tumor response to chemotherapy using a multi-parameter approach. Oncotarget. 2017 May 23;8(21):35481. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.18068. PubMed PMID: 28545221; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5471072.
Tran WT, Gangeh MJ, Sannachi L, Chin L, Watkins E, Bruni SG, Rastegar RF,
Curpen B, Trudeau M, Gandhi S, Yaffe M, Slodkowska E, Childs C, Sadeghi-Naini A, Czarnota GJ. Predicting breast cancer response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy using pretreatment diffuse optical spectroscopic texture analysis. Br J Cancer. 2017 May 9;116(10):1329-1339. doi: 10.1038/bjc.2017.97. Epub 2017 Apr 18. PubMed PMID: 28419079; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5482739.
Tadayyon H, Sannachi L, Gangeh MJ, Kim C, Ghandi S, Trudeau M, Pritchard K,
Tran WT, Slodkowska E, Sadeghi-Naini A, Czarnota GJ. A priori Prediction of
Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Response and Survival in Breast Cancer Patients using Quantitative Ultrasound. Sci Rep. 2017 Apr 12;7:45733. doi: 10.1038/srep45733. PubMed PMID: 28401902; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5388850.
Pasternak M, Doss L, Farhat G, Al-Mahrouki A, Kim CH, Kolios M, Tran WT,
Czarnota GJ. Effect of chromatin structure on quantitative ultrasound parameters. Oncotarget. 2017 Mar 21;8(12):19631-19644. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.14816. PubMed PMID: 28129644; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5386710.
Tran WT, Sannachi L, Papanicolau N, Tadayyon H, Al Mahrouki A, El Kaffas A,
Gorjizadeh A, Lee J, Czarnota GJ. Quantitative ultrasound imaging of therapy
response in bladder cancer in vivo. Oncoscience. 2016 Apr 18;3(3-4):122-33. doi:
10.18632/oncoscience.302. eCollection 2016. PubMed PMID: 27226985; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4872650.
Tran WT, Childs C, Chin L, Slodkowska E, Sannachi L, Tadayyon H, Watkins E,
Wong SL, Curpen B, El Kaffas A, Al-Mahrouki A, Sadeghi-Naini A, Czarnota GJ.
Multiparametric monitoring of chemotherapy treatment response in locally advanced breast cancer using quantitative ultrasound and diffuse optical spectroscopy. Oncotarget. 2016 Apr 12;7(15):19762-80. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.7844. PubMed PMID: 26942698; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4991417.
Tadayyon H, Sannachi L, Sadeghi-Naini A, Al-Mahrouki A, Tran WT, Kolios MC,
Czarnota GJ. Quantification of Ultrasonic Scattering Properties of In Vivo Tumor
Cell Death in Mouse Models of Breast Cancer. Transl Oncol. 2015 Dec;8(6):463 73. doi: 10.1016/j.tranon.2015.11.001. PubMed PMID: 26692527; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4701005.
Gangeh MJ, Tadayyon H, Sannachi L, Sadeghi-Naini A, Tran WT, Czarnota GJ.
Computer Aided Theragnosis Using Quantitative Ultrasound Spectroscopy and Maximum Mean Discrepancy in Locally Advanced Breast Cancer. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2016 Mar;35(3):778-90. doi: 10.1109/TMI.2015.2495246. Epub 2015 Oct 27. PubMed PMID: 26529750.
Sadeghi-Naini A, Vorauer E, Chin L, Falou O, Tran WT, Wright FC, Gandhi S,
Yaffe MJ, Czarnota GJ. Early detection of chemotherapy-refractory patients by
monitoring textural alterations in diffuse optical spectroscopic images. Med
Phys. 2015 Nov;42(11):6130-46. doi: 10.1118/1.4931603. PubMed PMID: 26520706.
Merino T, Tran WT, Czarnota GJ. Re-irradiation for locally recurrent
refractory breast cancer. Oncotarget. 2015 Oct 27;6(33):35051-62. doi:
10.18632/oncotarget.6036. PubMed PMID: 26459388; PubMed Central PMCID:
PMC4741508.
El Kaffas A, Sadeghi-Naini A, Falou O, Tran WT, Zhou S, Hashim A, Fernandes
J, Giles A, Czarnota GJ. Assessment of tumor response to radiation and vascular
targeting therapy in mice using quantitative ultrasound spectroscopy. Med Phys.
2015 Aug;42(8):4965-73. doi: 10.1118/1.4926554. PubMed PMID: 26233222.
Sannachi L, Tadayyon H, Sadeghi-Naini A, Tran W, Gandhi S, Wright F, Oelze M,
Czarnota G. Non-invasive evaluation of breast cancer response to chemotherapy
using quantitative ultrasonic backscatter parameters. Med Image Anal. 2015
Feb;20(1):224-36. doi: 10.1016/j.media.2014.11.009. Epub 2014 Nov 25. PubMed PMID: 25534283.
Al-Mahrouki AA, Iradji S, Tran WT, Czarnota GJ. Cellular characterization of
ultrasound-stimulated microbubble radiation enhancement in a prostate cancer
xenograft model. Dis Model Mech. 2014 Mar;7(3):363-72. doi: 10.1242/dmm.012922. Epub 2014 Jan 30. PubMed PMID: 24487407; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3944496.
El Kaffas A, Al-Mahrouki A, Tran WT, Giles A, Czarnota GJ. Sunitinib effects
on the radiation response of endothelial and breast tumor cells. Microvasc Res.
2014 Mar;92:1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.mvr.2013.10.008. Epub 2013 Nov 9. PubMed PMID: 24215790.
Kwok SJ, El Kaffas A, Lai P, Al Mahrouki A, Lee J, Iradji S, Tran WT, Giles
A, Czarnota GJ. Ultrasound-mediated microbubble enhancement of radiation therapy studied using three-dimensional high-frequency power Doppler ultrasound. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2013 Nov;39(11):1983-90. doi:
10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2013.03.025. Epub 2013 Aug 29. PubMed PMID: 23993051.
Tran WT, Iradji S, Sofroni E, Giles A, Eddy D, Czarnota GJ. Microbubble and
ultrasound radioenhancement of bladder cancer. Br J Cancer. 2012 Jul
24;107(3):469-76. doi: 10.1038/bjc.2012.279. Epub 2012 Jul 12. PubMed PMID:
22790798; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3405216.
Czarnota GJ, Karshafian R, Burns PN, Wong S, Al Mahrouki A, Lee JW, Caissie
A, Tran W, Kim C, Furukawa M, Wong E, Giles A. Tumor radiation response
enhancement by acoustical stimulation of the vasculature. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Jul 24;109(30):E2033-41. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1200053109. Epub 2012 Jul 9. PubMed PMID: 22778441; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3409730.
El Kaffas A, Tran W, Czarnota GJ. Vascular strategies for enhancing tumour
response to radiation therapy. Technol Cancer Res Treat. 2012 Oct;11(5):421-32.
Epub 2012 May 7. Review. PubMed PMID: 22568629.
Other activities
Clinician Scientist, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Toronto, Canada)