Diane Ling, MD

Dr. Diane C. Ling is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Radiation Oncology at the Keck School of Medicine. She joined the faculty in August, 2020. Her clinical practice is located at USC Norris Cancer Hospital.

She grew up in the Bay Area and Sacramento, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Cell Biology. She earned her medical doctorate degree at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. She completed her residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Hillman Cancer Center in Pittsburgh, PA, where she was chief resident.

Dr. Ling specializes in treating gastrointestinal and breast cancers. She has extensive experience with modern treatment techniques including intensity-modulated radiation therapy, volumetric-modulated arc therapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, stereotactic body radiotherapy, and motion management techniques. Her work has resulted in numerous publications, presentations at national meetings, and conference awards, including the Young Oncologist Essay Award as well as the James D. Cox Award of Scientific Merit from the American Radium Society.

Languages Spoken: English, Mandarin

• Pract Radiat Oncol. 2025 Feb 28. . View in PubMed
• Abdominal MR Multitasking for radiotherapy treatment planning: A motion-resolved and multicontrast 3D imaging approach Magn Reson Med. 2025 Jan; 93(1):108-120. . View in PubMed
• Radiation Therapy for Rectal Cancer: An ASTRO Clinical Practice Guideline Focused Update Pract Radiat Oncol. 2024 Nov 25. . View in PubMed
• Quality of Radiotherapy Workforce Training within the USA Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 2024 Feb 02. . View in PubMed
• Contrast-Enhanced Liver Magnetic Resonance Image Synthesis Using Gradient Regularized Multi-Modal Multi-Discrimination Sparse Attention Fusion GAN Cancers (Basel). 2023 Jul 08; 15(14). . View in PubMed
• Making the Right Choice: Radiate Only What’s Left, the Rest is Left Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2022 Jul 01; 113(3):491. . View in PubMed
• Single projection driven real-time multi-contrast (SPIDERM) MR imaging using pre-learned spatial subspace and linear transformation Phys Med Biol. 2022 06 27; 67(13). . View in PubMed
• In Regard to Jagsi et al Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2022 03 15; 112(4):1063-1064. . View in PubMed
• Definitive chemoradiation or radiation therapy alone for the management of vulvar cancer Int J Gynecol Cancer. 2022 03; 32(3):332-337. . View in PubMed
• Initial Data Pooling for Radiation Dose-Volume Tolerance for Carotid Artery Blowout and Other Bleeding Events in Hypofractionated Head and Neck Retreatments Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2021 05 01; 110(1):147-159. . View in PubMed
• Hypofractionated Prostate Radiation Therapy: Adoption and Dosimetric Adherence Through Clinical Pathways in an Integrated Oncology Network JCO Oncol Pract. 2021 04; 17(4):e537-e547. . View in PubMed
• Ureteral stenosis after 3D MRI-based brachytherapy for cervical cancer – Have we identified all the risk factors? Radiother Oncol. 2021 02; 155:86-92.. View in PubMed
• Quality of Regional Nodal Irradiation Plans in Breast Cancer Patients Across a Large Network-Can We Translate Results From Randomized Trials Into the Clinic? Pract Radiat Oncol. 2021 Jan-Feb; 11(1):e30-e35.. View in PubMed
• Dose-escalated intensity modulated radiation therapy in patients with locally-advanced vulvar cancer – does it increase response rate? Gynecol Oncol. 2020 12; 159(3):657-662.. View in PubMed
• Physician-Predicted Prognosis and Palliative Radiotherapy Treatment Utilization at the End of Life: An Audit of a Large Cancer Center NetworkJ Pain Symptom Manage. 2020 11; 60(5):898-905. e7. . View in PubMed
• Gynecol Oncol. 2020 10; 159(1):23-29. . View in PubMed
• Breast, Prostate, and Rectal Cancer: Should 5-5-5 Be a New Standard of Care? Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2020 10 01; 108(2):390-393.. View in PubMed
• External validation of life expectancy prognostic models in patients evaluated for palliative radiotherapy at the end-of-life Cancer Med. 2020 08; 9(16):5781-5787. . View in PubMed
• Regional Recurrence Rates With or Without Complete Axillary Dissection for Breast Cancer Patients with Node-Positive Disease on Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy after Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Adv Radiat Oncol. 2020 Mar-Apr; 5(2):163-170. . View in PubMed
• Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Upfront SBRT for Oligometastatic Stage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Based on Mutational Status Am J Clin Oncol. 2019 11; 42(11):837-844. . View in PubMed
• Salvage Curative-Intent Reirradiation Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Isolated Pelvic and/or Paraortic Recurrences of Gynecologic Malignancies Pract Radiat Oncol. 2019 Nov; 9(6):418-425. . View in PubMed
• Is Multifocal Regression a Risk Factor for Ipsilateral Breast Tumor Recurrence in the Modern Era After Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy and Breast Conservation Therapy? Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2019 07 15; 104(4):869-876.. View in PubMed
• Long-Term Patient-Reported Rectal Bleeding and Bowel-Related Quality of Life After Cs-131 Prostate Brachytherapy Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2019 07 01; 104(3):622-630. . View in PubMed
• In Reply to Miranda Degrande and Hanna Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2019 05 01; 104(1):221-222. . View in PubMed
• Outcomes after definitive re-irradiation with 3D brachytherapy with or without external beam radiation therapy for vaginal recurrence of endometrial cancer Gynecol Oncol. 2019 03; 152(3):581-586. . View in PubMed
• Lag Time Between Evidence and Guidelines: Can Clinical Pathways Bridge the Gap? J Oncol Pract. 2019 Mar; 15(3):e195-e201.. View in PubMed
• Hypofractionated Whole-Breast Irradiation in Large-Breasted Women-Is There a Dosimetric Predictor for Acute Skin Toxicities? Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2019 01 01; 103(1):71-77.. View in PubMed
• Declining brachytherapy utilization for high-risk prostate cancer-Can clinical pathways reverse the trend? Brachytherapy. 2018 Nov – Dec; 17(6):895-898.. View in PubMed
• Long-Term Outcomes After Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Spine Metastases: Radiation Dose-Response for Late Toxicity Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2018 07 01; 101(3):602-609. . View in PubMed
• Carotid Dosimetry and the Risk of Carotid Blowout Syndrome After Reirradiation With Head and Neck Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2018 05 01; 101(1):195-200. . View in PubMed
• Treatment of Early-Stage Hodgkin Lymphoma: Are We Just Shifting Morbidities? J Clin Oncol. 2017 08 20; 35(24):2849-2850.. View in PubMed
• Oncologic outcomes and patient-reported quality of life in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma treated with definitive transoral robotic surgery versus definitive chemoradiation Oral Oncol. 2016 10; 61:41-6. . View in PubMed
• Risk of Severe Toxicity According to Site of Recurrence in Patients Treated With Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Recurrent Head and Neck Cancer Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2016 07 01; 95(3):973-980. . View in PubMed
• Underutilization of radiation therapy in early-stage marginal zone lymphoma negatively impacts overall survival Pract Radiat Oncol. 2016 Jul-Aug; 6(4):e97-e105. . View in PubMed
• Comparison of Toxicity Between Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy and 3-Dimensional Conformal Radiotherapy for Locally Advanced Non-small-cell Lung Cancer Clin Lung Cancer. 2016 Jan; 17(1):18-23. . View in PubMed

• Matsuo, Koji
• Chang, Eric
• Roman, Lynda
• Lenz, Heinz-Josef
• Gill, Inderbir