Mary Jue Xu, MD, is a head and neck surgical oncologist with expertise in endocrine surgery, transoral robotic surgery, and microvascular reconstruction at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. She holds the Focused Practice Designation in Adult Complex Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery, jointly awarded by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, recognizing advanced expertise in endocrine surgery. Through both her clinical practice and research, she is committed to improving the lives of patients with head and neck cancer and expanding access to high-quality cancer care in resource-constrained health systems.
Dr. Xu studied biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned her medical degree through the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program. During medical school, she spent a year at Butaro Cancer Center in Rwanda studying clinical outcomes in pediatric cancer. During her otolaryngology–head and neck surgery residency at UCSF, she collaborated with Dr. Aslam Nkya, a head and neck surgeon at Muhimbili National Hospital in Tanzania, on research examining the epidemiology of human papillomavirus-associated head and neck cancers. She later co-founded the Global Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Initiative, an international research collaboration focused on strengthening global surgical care, and has led projects including a global otolaryngology workforce assessment. Her current research focuses on improving equitable access to high-quality head and neck cancer care in both the United States and low-resource settings internationally.