MORGANTOWN – WVU first-year dermatology resident Dr. Kevin Nguyen has been nationally recognized in the 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare category.
Forbes’ summary says, “Kevin Nguyen is developing new diagnostic and treatment strategies for skin cancer. His research uncovered a key predictor of survival for patients with a particularly deadly skin cancer and discovered the effectiveness of radiation therapy for certain classes of patients. The results of Nguyen’s research have since been incorporated into clinical guidelines.”
Nguyen talked with The Dominion Post this week about his recognition and his research.
His study involved Merkel Cell Carcinoma, an extremely rare cancer that’s also more deadly. While the five-year survival rate for melanoma is 90%, the rate for Merkel Cell is 60%. Because it’s not as prevalent, people are less aware of it.
Nguyen worked to identify biomarkers to guide treatment, he said. Certain biomarkers on the cancer cells can predict how it will behave in the future. “If you have this biomarker, you should treat more aggressively with radiation therapy.”
If you have the marker and don’t get adjuvant – immediate post-surgical – radiation treatment, you may live four years. With treatment you can live eight years, he said.
Even in early-stage disease, before it metastasizes, treatment still needs to be aggressive, he said. “If you don’t wipe it out up front, it can be really aggressive down the line.”
A Texas native, Nguyen earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in science at Yale and his M.D. at UCLA. He came to WVU in July and is in the first year of his three-year residency.
He’s co-authored more than 60 publications, including three to five on this topic, he said, and this research has been published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
He used the National Cancer Registry to study thousands of patients across several decades, to get the broadest possible sample for the best possible validity.
The concept isn’t new, he said. “Based on the experience of experts in the field, they would try to treat more aggressively based on experience, but they didn’t have any systematic data to be able to prove their intuition.” Through his research he was able to validate that intuition.
Nguyen said he doesn’t know who nominated him – perhaps one of his friends who has won a 30 Under 30 honor in the past, or one of his professors. In September-October, a Forbes editor contacted him to get to know him and his accomplishments. They had a couple back-and-forths. But he didn’t find out he was a winner until everyone else did – when Forbes announced it early December.
The honor, he said, includes an opportunity to go to New York for the launch party this month, to meet other honorees; and to go to Dubai for a summit, possibly in March.
“It’s also a good networking opportunity,” he said. “There’s a lot of big problems in society, and I feel you have to be able to collaborate with a lot of talented people from a lot of different industries to solve challenging issues. I think it will be a good opportunity to meet other like-minded, ambitious young people in different fields.”
Nguyen said that after UCLA he wanted a change of pace from the big city and was drawn to the strengths of the program at WVU. “We have a high volume, we see a lot of different patients, it’s really a good opportunity to serve the people in the state.”
When he completes his residency, he’s interested in a fellowship of dermatopathology – a field similar to his research, gaining understanding at the cellular level to improve patient care.
From there, he’s hoping to get a job in academia – doing research, teaching residents.
“I think that being able to treat patients and improve them on an individual basis is rewarding, but to make a really big impact on society you have to do something that’s scaleable,” he said. “Being able to discover and garner new knowledge, being able to shape the practice of doctors who are in the community, and impact patients you’ve never met before, I think that’s very rewarding.”
In the meantime, he said, he’s enjoying his time here. “I’m really happy to be at WVU. I think we have the best hospital in the state. I’ve had really good mentors.”
Dr. Zachary Zinn, residency program director, offered a comment in an email exchange: “This is a well-deserved honor for Kevin. He is committed to improving healthcare in the state of West Virginia, and improving dermatologic care in general. We are proud to have him in our residency program.”
Email: dbeard@dominionpost.com
