About Torunn Yock, MD

Doctor Torunn I. Yock is a Professor at Harvard Medical School. She received her MD from Harvard Medical School and acquired a Masters in Community Health as a Fulbright Scholar from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.  Her residency was at Massachusetts General Hospital.  Her clinical practice is now comprised mostly of pediatric patients and survivors of childhood cancer.  Dr. Yock’s research career has focused on measuring health outcomes to further improve upon cure rates and the quality of the survivorship in pediatric cancer patients and applying big data principals to research repositories.  Her research has focused on the role of proton radiotherapy in pediatric cancer and both its power to mitigate late effects in our childhood cancer survivors, but also its potential pitfalls.  Dr. Yock is the Primary Investigator of multiple pediatric protocols and she holds grant funding from a variety of sources including the NCI.  She also participates in collaborative research with the Children’s Oncology Group, sitting on the Brain Tumor and Soft Tissue Sarcoma Committees, and is leading an NCI/MGH-sponsored multi-institutional registry enrolling pediatric patients treated with modern proton and photon radiotherapy and have accrued over 2600 patients. She has also authored over 120 articles and chapters and is an active member of ASTRO, ASCO, PROS, SIOP and serves on the American Board of Radiology to develop both the written and oral board examinations.

Clinical Interests:

Treats:

Locations

Massachusetts General Hospital
55 Fruit St.
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 617-726-0976

Mass General Cancer Center at Emerson Hospital
131 Old Rd. To Nine Acre Corner
John Cuming Building
Concord, MA 01742
Phone: 978-287-3290

Medical Education

  • MD, Harvard Medical School
  • Residency, Massachusetts General Hospital

American Board Certifications

  • Radiation Oncology, American Board of Radiology

Accepted Insurance Plans

Note: This provider may accept more insurance plans than shown; please call the practice to find out if your plan is accepted.


Research

Dr. Yock is currently the director of Pediatric Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital which is the largest pediatric proton program in the world, having treated over 1700 pediatric proton patients. As the primary investigator of 6 prospective proton protocols, her research focuses on quantifying the late effects and Health-Related Quality of Life in pediatric cancer patients treated with radiotherapy.  In addition, Dr. Yock is leading a successful multi-site pediatric  radiation registry, the Pediatric Proton/Photon Consortium Registry (PPCR),  in which over 2600 patients have been enrolled and receives support from NCI, and internal funding and some industry support as well.   Dr. Yock's career has focused on measuring health outcomes to further improve upon cure rates and the quality of the survivorship in pediatric cancer patients and applying big data principles to research repositories.  Her research has focused on the role of proton radiotherapy in pediatric cancer and both its power to mitigate late effects in our childhood cancer survivors, but also its potential pitfalls. 

 Learn more about Dr. Yock's research.

Publications

    1. Yock TI, Yeap BY, Ebb DH, Weyman E, Eaton BR, Sherry NA, Jones RM, MacDonald SM, Pulsifer MB, Lavally B, Abrams AN, Huang MS, Marcus KJ, Tarbell NJ. Long-term toxic effects of proton radiotherapy for paediatric medulloblastoma: a phase 2 single-arm study. Lancet Oncol. 2016 Mar;17(3):287-98.

    2. Vatner RE, Niemierko A, Misra M, Weyman E, Goebel C, Ebb D, Jones R, Huang M, Mahajan A, Grosshans D, Paulino A, Stanley T, MacDonald SM, Tarbell NJ, Yock TI. Endocrine deficiency as a function of radiation dose to the hypothalamus and pituitary in pediatric and young adult patients with brain tumors.  J Clin Oncol. 2018 Oct 1;36(28):2854-2862. 

    3. Eaton BR, Esiashvili N, Kim S, Patterson B, Weyman EA, Thornton LT, Mazewski C, MacDonald TJ, Ebb D, MacDonald SM, Tarbell NJ, Yock TI. Endocrine outcomes with proton and photon radiotherapy for standard risk medulloblastoma. Neuro Oncol. 2016 Jun; 18(6): 881-7.

    4. Ladra ML, Szymonifka J, Mahajan A, Friedmann AM, Yeap BY, Goebel C, MacDonald SM, Grosshans D, Rodriguez-Galindo C, Marcus KJ, Tarbell NJ, Yock TI. Preliminary results of a Phase II Trial of proton radiotherapy for pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma. J Clin Oncol. 2014 Nov 20;32(33):3762-70.

    5. Kuhlthau K, Pulsifer MB, Yeap BY, Morales DR, Delahaye J, Hill KS, Ebb D, Abram A, MacDonald SM, Tarbell NJ, Yock TI, A prospective study of health-related quality of life for children with brain tumors treated with proton radiotherapy. J Clin Oncol. 2012 Jun 10;30(17):2079-86. PMID: 22565004  

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