Yu Cao, M.D.

Biography

Yu Cao, M.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She specializes in head and neck cancers and lung cancers.

Dr. Cao earned her medical degree at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She completed a residency in internal medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and received advanced training through a hematology-oncology fellowship at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California, and a hospice and palliative medicine fellowship at Stanford Health Care.

Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine, medical oncology, hematology, and hospice and palliative medicine, she joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2024. She previously served at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, where she was honored for excellence in teaching medical students who rotated through the inpatient oncology service and nominated for The Doctor’s Doctor Award for Clinical Excellence, given to Tufts faculty to whom the internal medicine residents would most want to send their family members. She looks forward to teaching and mentoring medical students, residents, and fellows at UT Southwestern.

Dr. Cao’s research interests include supportive oncology for older patients with cancer, cultural influences on cancer care, and overcoming cancer care disparities. She has delivered presentations and published peer-reviewed academic articles related to her areas of expertise.

She is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, the American Association for Cancer Research, the Cancer and Aging Research Group, and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

Personal Note

When she’s not at work, Dr. Cao enjoys finding spaces for reflection; exploring libraries, bookstores, and walking paths; finding songs, poems, and films that move and heal; and being together with family and friends.