Photo of Benjamin H Kann, MD

Benjamin H Kann, MD

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Phone: (617) 632-5734


benjamin_kann@dfci.harvard.edu

Photo of Benjamin H Kann, MD

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Phone: (617) 632-5734


benjamin_kann@dfci.harvard.edu

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Benjamin H Kann, MD

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

EDUCATIONAL TITLES

  • Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology, Harvard Medical School
  • Radiation Oncologist, Radiation Oncology, Brigham And Women's Hospital
  • Radiation Oncologist, Radiation Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

HCC PROGRAM AFFILIATION

Research Abstract

I am a radiation oncologist and physician scientist at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWHCC) focused on the development and translation of artificial intelligence (AI) applications for cancer imaging analysis and clinical decision-making. My clinical practice is based at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. I lead a computational imaging lab with a primary focus on the development of AI-based algorithms to analyze pediatric brain tumor imaging to improve clinical decision-making and outcomes.

Publications from Harvard Catalyst Profiles

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  • Zapaishchykova A, Zielke J, Tak D, Climent Pardo JC, Mojahed-Yazdi R, Soto-Rivera CL, Liu KX, Saraf A, Ye Z, Wang W, Chen YH, Vajapeyam S, Mak RH, Mueller S, Nabavizadeh A, Wilson RL, Dieli-Conwright CM, Ligon KL, Haas-Kogan DA, Aerts HJWL, Poussaint TY, Benitez V, Chi SN, Kann BH. Artificial intelligence analysis of temporalis muscle thickness for monitoring sarcopenia and clinical outcomes in individuals with paediatric brain tumours: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet Digit Health 2026. PubMed
  • Kotch C, Perreault S, Power P, Adams DJ, Aldape K, Avery RA, Bandopadhayay P, Capper D, de Blank P, Entz-Werle N, Fangusaro J, Hansford JR, Hawkins C, Jacques TS, Jones DT, Kann BH, Kranendonk ME, Levine A, Ligon KL, Martinez-Barbera JP, Meijer L, Milde T, Mueller S, Mulcahy Levy JM, Nakano Y, Packer RJ, Pfister S, Raabe E, Robison NJ, Tabori U, Yeo KK, Vinitsky A, Zhu Y, Fisher MJ, Hargrave D, Kilburn LB. Tempered Optimism: Advances in the Precision Medicine Era for Pediatric Low-Grade Glioma. 2026. PubMed
  • Fathi Kazerooni A, Jiang Z, Gandhi D, Khalili N, Liu X, Tu W, Ware JB, Familiar AM, Vunnava B, Zapaishchykova A, McAllister AS, Sanchez-Montano M, Sheth N, Nandolia KK, Lai HA, Pavaine J, Prabhu SP, Haldar D, Varshochi S, Bagheri S, Anderson H, Haldar S, Khalili N, Gottipati A, Shaikh IS, Castellino E, Mangoli A, Gohil H, Maleki N, Low J, Hummel T, Packer RJ, Franson A, Storm PB, Bakas S, Calabrese E, Aboian M, de Blank P, Kann BH, Rood B, Resnick AC, Nabavizadeh A, Vossough A, Linguraru MG. Multi-Institutional Annotated Multiparametric MRI Dataset of Pediatric High-Grade Gliomas. Radiol Artif Intell 2026. PubMed
  • Haugg F, Lee G, He J, Warrington A, Bontempi D, Bitterman DS, Catalano PJ, Prudente V, Pai S, Guthier C, Kann BH, Aerts HJ, Mak RH. Face aging rate quantifies change in biological age to predict cancer outcomes. Nat Commun 2026. PubMed
  • Lee G, Haugg F, Bontempi D, He J, Bitterman DS, Pai S, Guthier C, Fitzgerald KJ, Kozono DE, Kann BH, Aerts HJWL, Mak RH. Multimodal Assessment of Biological Age Following Radiation Therapy Among Patients With Early-Stage NSCLC. JAMA Netw Open 2026; 9:e264872. PubMed
  • Tak D, Garomsa BA, Zapaishchykova A, Chaunzwa TL, Climent Pardo JC, Ye Z, Zielke J, Ravipati Y, Pai S, Vajapeyam S, Mahootiha M, Parker M, Pike LRG, Smith C, Familiar AM, Liu KX, Prabhu S, Arnaout O, Bandopadhayay P, Nabavizadeh A, Mueller S, Aerts HJ, Huang RY, Poussaint TY, Kann BH. A generalizable foundation model for analysis of human brain MRI. Nat Neurosci 2026. PubMed
  • Neibart SS, Lin N, Hogan J, Moningi S, Kann BH, Mak RH, Lam M. Validation of Claims-Based Algorithms to Classify Thoracic Radiation Therapy Courses. JCO Clin Cancer Inform 2026; 10:e2500266. PubMed
  • Mandzak M, Yang E, Zapaishchykova A, Chen YH, Heilbroner L, Zielke J, Tak D, Mojahed-Yazdi R, Mussa FR, Ye Z, Vajapeyam S, Benitez V, Salloum R, Chi SN, Sotoudeh H, Seidlitz J, Mueller S, Aerts HJWL, Poussaint TY, Kann BH. TissUnet: Improved extracranial tissue and cranium segmentation for children through adulthood. Imaging Neurosci (Camb) 2026. PubMed
  • Ye Z, Mojahed-Yazdi R, Zapaishchykova A, Tak D, Mahootiha M, Pardo JCC, Zielke J, Zha Y, Guthier C, Tishler RB, Margalit DN, Schoenfeld JD, Haddad RI, Uppaluri R, Haibe-Kains B, Fuller CD, Naser M, Burtness BA, Aerts HJWL, Hoebers F, Kann BH. Automated Lymph Node and Extranodal Extension Assessment Improves Risk Stratification in Oropharyngeal Carcinoma. J Clin Oncol 2025. PubMed
  • Lee G, Haugg F, Bontempi D, He J, Zalay O, Bitterman DS, Catalano P, Prudente V, Pai S, Guthier C, Kann BH, De Ruysscher D, Aerts HJWL, Mak RH. FaceAge as a biomarker for prognosis and treatment stratification in large-scale oncology cohort. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2025. PubMed
  • Kazerooni AF, Familiar AM, Aboian M, Brüningk SC, Vossough A, Linguraru MG, Huang RY, Hargrave D, Peet AC, Resnick AC, Storm PB, Mirsky D, Yeom KW, Weller M, Prados M, Chang SM, Mueller S, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Bakas S, Fangusaro J, Kann BH, Nabavizadeh A, . Artificial Intelligence for Response Assessment in Pediatric Neuro-Oncology (AI-RAPNO), part 2: challenges, opportunities, and recommendations for clinical translation. Lancet Oncol. 2025; 26:e607-e618. PubMed
  • Kann BH, Vossough A, Brüningk SC, Familiar AM, Aboian M, Linguraru MG, Yeom KW, Chang SM, Hargrave D, Mirsky D, Storm PB, Huang RY, Resnick AC, Weller M, Mueller S, Prados M, Peet AC, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Bakas S, Fangusaro J, Nabavizadeh A, Kazerooni AF, . Artificial Intelligence for Response Assessment in Pediatric Neuro-Oncology (AI-RAPNO), part 1: review of the current state of the art. Lancet Oncol. 2025; 26:e597-e606. PubMed
  • Han Z, Lee HY, Yu S, Hsu SH, Fitzgerald KJ, Kann BH, Kozono D, Leeman JE, van Dams R, Mak RH. Ratio of PTV to normal lung volumes as a dosimetric predictor for lung metrics in peripheral lung SBRT. Med Dosim 2025. PubMed
  • Haddadi Avval A, Banerjee S, Zielke J, Kann BH, Mueller S, Rauschecker AM. Applications of artificial intelligence and advanced imaging in pediatric diffuse midline glioma. 2025; 27:1419-1433. PubMed
  • Song B, Yadav I, Tsai JC, Madabhushi A, Kann BH. Artificial Intelligence for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: From Diagnosis to Treatment. Am Soc Clin Oncol Educ Book 2025; 45:e472464. PubMed
  • Payabvash S, Sharaf K, Zeevi T, Gross M, Mahajan A, Kann BH, Judson BL, Schreier A, Krenn J, Prasad ML, Burtness B, Aboian M, Canis M, Baumeister P, Reichel CA, Haider SP. FDG-PET intensity normalization improves radiomics- based survival prediction in oropharyngeal cancer patients: a comparison of the SUV with alternative normalization techniques. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 2025. PubMed
  • Bontempi D, Zalay O, Bitterman DS, Birkbak N, Shyr D, Haugg F, Qian JM, Roberts H, Perni S, Prudente V, Pai S, Dekker A, Haibe-Kains B, Guthier C, Balboni T, Warren L, Krishan M, Kann BH, Swanton C, De Ruysscher D, Mak RH, Aerts HJWL. FaceAge, a deep learning system to estimate biological age from face photographs to improve prognostication: a model development and validation study. Lancet Digit Health 2025. PubMed
  • Bakhtiar M, Ye Z, Schoenfeld JD, Mohammadi H, Guenette JP, Rettig EM, Hanna GJ, Kann BH. Artificial Intelligence Measured Tumor Burden and Pre-Treatment Circulating Tumor DNA in Human Papilloma Virus-Associated Oropharynx Cancer. Head Neck 2025. PubMed
  • Tak D, Garomsa BA, Zapaishchykova A, Ye Z, Vajapeyam S, Mahootiha M, Pardo JCC, Smith C, Familiar AM, Chaunzwa TL, Liu KX, Prabhu SP, Bandopadhayay P, Nabavizadeh A, Mueller S, Aerts HJWL, Haas-Kogan D, Poussaint TY, Kann BH. Longitudinal Risk Prediction for Pediatric Glioma with Temporal Deep Learning. NEJM AI 2025. PubMed
  • Sahin O, Kamel S, Wahid KA, Dede C, Taku N, He R, Naser MA, Sharafi CS, Mäkitie A, Kann BH, Kaski K, Sahlsten J, Jaskari J, Amit M, Chronowski GM, Diaz EM, Garden AS, Goepfert RP, Guenette JP, Gunn GB, Hirvonen J, Hoebers F, Hutcheson KA, Guha-Thakurta N, Johnson J, Kaya D, Khanpara SD, Nyman K, Lai SY, Lango M, Learned KO, Lee A, Lewis CM, Maniakas A, Moreno AC, Myers JN, Phan J, Pytynia KB, Rosenthal DI, Sandulache VC, Schellingerhout D, Shah SJ, Sikora AG, Mohamed ASR, Chen MM, Fuller CD, . International multispecialty expert physician preoperative identification of extranodal extension in patients with oropharyngeal cancer using computed tomography: Prospective blinded human inter-observer performance evaluation. Cancer 2025; 131:e35815. PubMed
  • Saraf A, He J, Shin KY, Weiss J, Awad MM, Gainor J, Kann BH, Christiani DC, Aerts HJWL, Mak RH. Association of Sarcopenia With Toxicity and Survival in Patients With Lung Cancer, a Multi-Institutional Study With External Dataset Validation. Clin Lung Cancer 2025. PubMed
  • Climent Pardo JC, Zapaishchykova A, Boyd A, Tak D, Zielke J, Mahootiha M, Ye Z, Vajapeyam S, Jones J, Smith C, Familiar AM, Nabavizadeh A, Bandopadhayay P, Mueller S, Aerts HJWL, Haas-Kogan DA, Michor F, Ligon KL, Poussaint TY, Faghihroohi S, Kann BH. Deep learning volumetrics reveal distinct clinical trajectories for pediatric low-grade gliomas under surveillance: A multicenter study. 2025; 7:vdaf145. PubMed
  • Familiar AM, Khalili N, Khalili N, Schuman C, Grove E, Viswanathan K, Seidlitz J, Alexander-Bloch A, Zapaishchykova A, Kann BH, Vossough A, Storm PB, Resnick AC, Kazerooni AF, Nabavizadeh A. Empowering Data Sharing in Neuroscience: A Deep Learning De-identification Method for Pediatric Brain MRIs. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 2024. PubMed
  • Mahootiha M, Tak D, Ye Z, Zapaishchykova A, Likitlersuang J, Climent Pardo JC, Boyd A, Vajapeyam S, Chopra R, Prabhu SP, Liu KX, Elhalawani H, Nabavizadeh A, Familiar A, Mueller S, Aerts HJWL, Bandopadhayay P, Ligon KL, Haas-Kogan D, Poussaint TY, Qadir HA, Balasingham I, Kann BH. Multimodal Deep Learning Improves Recurrence Risk Prediction in Pediatric Low-Grade Gliomas. 2024. PubMed
  • Zha Y, Ye Z, Zapaishchykova A, He J, Hsu SH, Leeman JE, Fitzgerald KJ, Kozono DE, Mak RH, Aerts HJWL, Kann BH. Delta radiomics to track radiation response in lung tumors receiving stereotactic magnetic resonance-guided radiotherapy. Phys Imaging Radiat Oncol 2024; 31:100626. PubMed
  • Zhao X, Zhang S, Sun X, Lin Y, Capone L, Ko EC, Kann BH, Li Y, Wang X. Narrative review of stereotactic body radiation therapy combined with tyrosine kinase inhibitors for oligometastatic -mutated non-small cell lung cancer: present and future developments. Transl Lung Cancer Res 2024; 13:1383-1395. PubMed
  • Lee HY, Lee G, Ferguson D, Hsu SH, Hu YH, Huynh E, Sudhyadhom A, Williams CL, Cagney DN, Fitzgerald KJ, Kann BH, Kozono D, Leeman JE, Mak RH, Han Z. Lung sparing in MR-guided non-adaptive SBRT treatment of peripheral lung tumors. Biomed Phys Eng Express 2024. PubMed
  • Sahlsten J, Jaskari J, Wahid KA, Ahmed S, Glerean E, He R, Kann BH, Mäkitie A, Fuller CD, Naser MA, Kaski K. Application of simultaneous uncertainty quantification and segmentation for oropharyngeal cancer use-case with Bayesian deep learning. Commun Med (Lond) 2024; 4:110. PubMed
  • Chen S, Guevara M, Moningi S, Hoebers F, Elhalawani H, Kann BH, Chipidza FE, Leeman J, Aerts HJWL, Miller T, Savova GK, Gallifant J, Celi LA, Mak RH, Lustberg M, Afshar M, Bitterman DS. The effect of using a large language model to respond to patient messages. Lancet Digit Health 2024; 6:e379-e381. PubMed
  • Familiar AM, Fathi Kazerooni A, Vossough A, Ware JB, Bagheri S, Khalili N, Anderson H, Haldar D, Storm PB, Resnick AC, Kann BH, Aboian M, Kline C, Weller M, Huang RY, Chang SM, Fangusaro JR, Hoffman LM, Mueller S, Prados M, Nabavizadeh A. Towards Consistency in Pediatric Brain Tumor Measurements: Challenges, Solutions, and the Role of AI-Based Segmentation. 2024. PubMed
  • Haider SP, Zeevi T, Sharaf K, Gross M, Mahajan A, Kann BH, Judson BL, Prasad ML, Burtness B, Aboian M, Canis M, Reichel CA, Baumeister P, Payabvash S. Impact of F-FDG PET Intensity Normalization on Radiomic Features of Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinomas and Machine Learning-Generated Biomarkers. J Nucl Med 2024. PubMed
  • Tak D, Ye Z, Zapaischykova A, Zha Y, Boyd A, Vajapeyam S, Chopra R, Hayat H, Prabhu S, Liu KX, Elhalawani H, Nabavizadeh A, Familiar A, Resnick A, Mueller S, Aerts HJWL, Bandopadhayay P, Ligon K, Haas-Kogan D, Poussaint T, Kann BH. Noninvasive Molecular Subtyping of Pediatric Low-Grade Glioma with Self-Supervised Transfer Learning. Radiol Artif Intell 2024. PubMed
  • Yan Y, Kehayias C, He J, Aerts HJWL, Fitzgerald KJ, Kann BH, Kozono DE, Guthier CV, Mak RH. Edge roughness quantifies impact of physician variation on training and performance of deep learning auto-segmentation models for the esophagus. Sci Rep 2024; 14:2536. PubMed
  • Guevara M, Chen S, Thomas S, Chaunzwa TL, Franco I, Kann BH, Moningi S, Qian JM, Goldstein M, Harper S, Aerts HJWL, Catalano PJ, Savova GK, Mak RH, Bitterman DS. Large language models to identify social determinants of health in electronic health records. NPJ Digit Med 2024; 7:6. PubMed
  • Cooper DJ, Ziemba Y, Pereira L, Kann BH, Parashar B, Miles BA, Ghaly M, Seetharamu N, Frank D, Talcott WJ. Rates of Occult Invasive Disease in Patients With Biopsy-Proven Oral Cavity Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Situ. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2024. PubMed
  • Hoebers FJP, Wee L, Likitlersuang J, Mak RH, Bitterman DS, Huang Y, Dekker A, Aerts HJWL, Kann BH. Artificial intelligence research in radiation oncology: a practical guide for the clinician on concepts and methods. BJR Open 2024; 6:tzae039. PubMed
  • Lee G, Han Z, Huynh E, Tjong MC, Cagney DN, Huynh MA, Kann BH, Kozono D, Leeman JE, Singer L, Williams CL, Mak RH. Widening the therapeutic window for central and ultra-central thoracic oligometastatic disease with stereotactic MR-guided adaptive radiation therapy (SMART). Radiother Oncol 2023; 190:110034. PubMed
  • Zapaishchykova A, Liu KX, Saraf A, Ye Z, Catalano PJ, Benitez V, Ravipati Y, Jain A, Huang J, Hayat H, Likitlersuang J, Vajapeyam S, Chopra RB, Familiar AM, Nabavidazeh A, Mak RH, Resnick AC, Mueller S, Cooney TM, Haas-Kogan DA, Poussaint TY, Aerts HJWL, Kann BH. Automated temporalis muscle quantification and growth charts for children through adulthood. Nat Commun 2023; 14:6863. PubMed
  • Banla LI, Tzeng A, Baillieul JP, Kandekhar MJ, Fitzgerald KJ, LoPiccolo J, Poitras HA, Soto DE, Rotow JK, Singer L, Willers H, Kozono DE, Janne PA, Mak RH, Piotrowska Z, Keane FK, Kann BH. Pneumonitis in Patients Receiving Thoracic Radiotherapy and Osimertinib: A Multi-Institutional Study. JTO Clin Res Rep 2023; 4:100559. PubMed
  • Ye Z, Saraf A, Ravipati Y, Hoebers F, Catalano PJ, Zha Y, Zapaishchykova A, Likitlersuang J, Guthier C, Tishler RB, Schoenfeld JD, Margalit DN, Haddad RI, Mak RH, Naser M, Wahid KA, Sahlsten J, Jaskari J, Kaski K, Mäkitie AA, Fuller CD, Aerts HJWL, Kann BH. Development and Validation of an Automated Image-Based Deep Learning Platform for Sarcopenia Assessment in Head and Neck Cancer. JAMA Netw Open 2023; 6:e2328280. PubMed
  • Kann BH, Likitlersuang J, Bontempi D, Ye Z, Aneja S, Bakst R, Kelly HR, Juliano AF, Payabvash S, Guenette JP, Uppaluri R, Margalit DN, Schoenfeld JD, Tishler RB, Haddad R, Aerts HJWL, Garcia JJ, Flamand Y, Subramaniam RM, Burtness BA, Ferris RL. Screening for extranodal extension in HPV-associated oropharyngeal carcinoma: evaluation of a CT-based deep learning algorithm in patient data from a multicentre, randomised de-escalation trial. Lancet Digit Health 2023; 5:e360-e369. PubMed
  • Kazmierski M, Welch M, Kim S, McIntosh C, Rey-McIntyre K, Huang SH, Patel T, Tadic T, Milosevic M, Liu FF, Ryczkowski A, Kazmierska J, Ye Z, Plana D, Aerts HJWL, Kann BH, Bratman SV, Hope AJ, Haibe-Kains B. Multi-institutional Prognostic Modeling in Head and Neck Cancer: Evaluating Impact and Generalizability of Deep Learning and Radiomics. Cancer Res Commun 2023; 3:1140-1151. PubMed
  • Peterson J, Wilson TF, Watt MH, Gruhl J, Davis S, Olsen J, Parsons MW, Kann BH, Swire-Thompson B, Fagerlin A, Warner EL, King AJ, Chino F, Johnson SB. International medical tourism of US cancer patients for alternative cancer treatments: Financial, demographic, and clinical profiles of online crowdfunding campaigns. Cancer Med 2023; 12:8871-8879. PubMed
  • Ye Z, Saraf A, Ravipati Y, Hoebers F, Zha Y, Zapaishchykova A, Likitlersuang J, Tishler RB, Schoenfeld JD, Margalit DN, Haddad RI, Mak RH, Naser M, Wahid KA, Sahlsten J, Jaskari J, Kaski K, Mäkitie AA, Fuller CD, Aerts HJWL, Kann BH. Fully-automated sarcopenia assessment in head and neck cancer: development and external validation of a deep learning pipeline. medRxiv 2023. PubMed
  • Johnson SB, King AJ, Warner EL, Aneja S, Kann BH, Bylund CL. Using ChatGPT to evaluate cancer myths and misconceptions: artificial intelligence and cancer information. JNCI Cancer Spectr 2023. PubMed
  • Tran NA, Palotai M, Hanna GJ, Schoenfeld JD, Bay CP, Rettig EM, Bunch PM, Juliano AF, Kelly HR, Suh CH, Zander DA, Morales Pinzon A, Kann BH, Huang RY, Haddad RI, Guttmann CRG, Guenette JP. Diagnostic performance of computed tomography features in detecting oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma extranodal extension. Eur Radiol 2023. PubMed
  • Sahlsten J, Wahid KA, Glerean E, Jaskari J, Naser MA, He R, Kann BH, Mäkitie A, Fuller CD, Kaski K. Segmentation stability of human head and neck cancer medical images for radiotherapy applications under de-identification conditions: Benchmarking data sharing and artificial intelligence use-cases. 2023; 13:1120392. PubMed
  • Plana D, Shung DL, Grimshaw AA, Saraf A, Sung JJY, Kann BH. Randomized Clinical Trials of Machine Learning Interventions in Health Care: A Systematic Review. JAMA Netw Open 2022; 5:e2233946. PubMed
  • Kann BH, Hosny A, Aerts HJWL. Artificial intelligence for clinical oncology. Cancer Cell 2021. PubMed
  • Kann BH, Hicks DF, Payabvash S, Mahajan A, Du J, Gupta V, Park HS, Yu JB, Yarbrough WG, Burtness BA, Husain ZA, Aneja S. Multi-Institutional Validation of Deep Learning for Pretreatment Identification of Extranodal Extension in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma. J Clin Oncol 2020; 38:1304-1311. PubMed
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