Dr. Jae Y. Ro, MD, PhD

Expert Publications

• Clonal analysis of a solitary follicular nodule of the thyroid with the polymerase chain reaction method.
• Benign nevus cell aggregates in the thymus: a case report.
• Sutureless end-to-end bowel anastomosis using an argon laser and water-soluble intraluminal stent.
• Benign tumors and tumor-like lesions of the adult kidney. Part I: Benign renal epithelial neoplasms.
• Angiocentric lymphoma masquerading as acute appendicitis.
• Collecting duct meningeal carcinomatosis.
• Sclerosing Mucoepidermoid carcinoma with eosinophilia of the thyroid glands: a case report with clinical manifestation of recurrent neck mass.
• Correlation of methylation of the hMLH1 promoter with lack of expression of hMLH1 in sporadic gastric carcinomas with replication error.
• Renal oncocytosis: a morphologic study of fourteen cases.
• Facilitation of neuronal activity in somatosensory and posterior parietal cortex during prehension.
• Flow cytometric immunophenotyping in fine-needle aspiration of lymph nodes.
• Colonic adenocarcinoma metastatic to the thyroid gland: a case report with immunohistochemical investigation.
• Evidence for subnucleus interpolaris in craniofacial muscle pain mechanisms demonstrated by intramuscular injections with hypertonic saline.
• Physiological evidence for caudal brainstem projections of jaw muscle spindle afferents.
• Paclitaxel resistance in non-small-cell lung cancer associated with beta-tubulin gene mutations.

Media Releases

Get to know Pathologist Dr. Jae Y. Ro, who serves patients in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Ro is an established pathologist serving as the Medical Director of Surgical Pathology at Houston Methodist Hospital. His clinical interests include urology oncology, bladder cancer, breast cancer, head & neck cancer, kidney-related disease, hyperbaric medicine, male reproductive disorders, neoplasia, testicular cancer, and prostate cancer.

Houston Methodist comprises a leading academic medical center in the Texas Medical Center and six community hospitals serving the Greater Houston area. Each hospital is staffed by committed personnel who exemplify I CARE values: integrity, compassion, accountability, respect and excellence. The mission of Houston Methodist is “To provide high quality, cost-effective health care that delivers the best value to the people we serve in a spiritual environment of caring in association with internationally recognized teaching and research.”

In affiliation with Houston Methodist, Dr. Ro serves as a full member at Houston Methodist Research Institute, a member of the Houston Methodist Cancer Center, and as a professor within the Department of Pathology & Genomic Medicine at Houston Methodist Academic Institute. He can also be found on staff at Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital.

His main research interests include studies on the pathogenesis of genitourinary and lung tumors including prevention and the identification of prognostic factors. For these purposes, molecular and tissue microarray techniques have been used. These studies are primarily translational research, as his findings are based on surgical specimens submitted to Houston Methodist Hospital.

The doctor’s acclaimed career in medicine began after he earned his medical degree from the Yonsei University College of Medicine in South Korea in 1969. Upon relocating to the United States, he went on to perform his residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

After completing his fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in the Department of Pathology in 1985, Dr. Ro was named instructor in that department and promoted to assistant professor, associate professor, and professor over the following 7 years. He left MD Anderson in 1998 to become Chairman and Director of the Department of Pathology at the Asan Medical Center, Ulsan University in Seoul, Korea, but returned the next year, assuming his past duties as Co-director of the Fellowship Training Program and Chief of Pulmonary and Mediastinal Pathology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He retired from MD Anderson in October of 2001 and returned to the Asan Medical Center as a Chairman and Director of the Department of Pathology until he joined Houston Methodist Hospital in March of 2005.

Excelling in his profession, Dr. Ro is board-certified in anatomic and clinical pathology by the American Board of Pathology (ABPath). The mission of the ABPath is to promote the health of the public and advance the practice and science of pathology by establishing voluntary certification standards and assessing the qualifications of those seeking to practice the specialty of pathology.

In direct affiliation with his industry, he is a member of the American Medical Association, the United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology, the College of American Pathologists, the International Society of Urological Pathology, the Korean Society of Pathologists, and the International Academy of Pathology.

Pathology is a branch of medical science that involves the study and diagnosis of disease through the examination of surgically removed organs, tissues, bodily fluids, and in some cases, the whole body. Pathologists are physicians who specialize in the diagnosis and management of diseases by laboratory methods. 

An authority in his field, Dr. Ro has published over 500 papers in the highest quality peer-reviewed journals and presented more than 400 abstracts at national and international scientific meetings. He published one textbook and more than 20 book chapters and teaching manuals. He has also served as a guest lecturer in the United States and abroad.

On a more personal note, Dr. Ro is involved with the Seoul Baptist Church of Houston. He is fluent in both English and Korean.

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