After graduating from UBC Dentistry, Kevin Ko, DMD 2011, continued his education. He completed his doctor of medicine degree with two residencies, one in oral and maxillofacial pathology and a second in anatomic pathology, followed by a fellowship in dermatopathology. Today, Dr. Ko works as a pathologist at the BC Cancer Agency.

Why did you become an oral pathologist?

The first two years of my DMD degree were with medicine students, which I really enjoyed, so early on, I thought about a career that intersected dentistry and medicine. In my fourth year, I spent time in UBC Dentistry Professor Dr. Catherine Poh’s lab, which sparked my interest in research and cancer, so specializing in oral pathology felt like an ideal fit.

What does your day-to-day look like?

I receive biopsies from dentists across the province and review them under a microscope. I specialize in the oral cavity and skin, so the first question I’m trying to answer is whether the biopsy is cancer, precancer (also known as dysplasia) or neither.

Is it challenging to diagnose dysplasia?

Yes! It can be very hard to diagnose, which is why I started doing research. The P53 gene is a tumour suppressor, so our team of oral pathologists added a P53 stain to our biopsy analysis. If a dysplasia biopsy has a P53 mutation, there’s a good chance it will develop into cancer, regardless of what the cells look like under the microscope.  

We added this stain in 2022 and have been collecting data to determine its effectiveness at diagnosing dysplasia that’s high-risk of becoming cancer. So far, the results look promising, and we’ve published a few papers on this, so we’ll continue collecting data for the next several years.

What inspired you to do this research?

I have an obligation to patients. In school, if you get 90 per cent on a test, that’s considered amazing. But in oral pathology, if I’m only getting 90 per cent of my diagnoses correct, many people will suffer from my mistakes. A test like P53 will help me do my job and improve patient diagnosis and care.  

I currently have a few more P53 research projects on the go. We’ve also noticed that some oral lesions become cancer despite not having a P53 mutation, which means other gene mutations are involved, so we’ve started asking research questions about that too.

What do you enjoy most about being an oral pathologist?

Oral pathologists have a direct impact on patient care. The report from a pathologist is considered a final diagnosis, so in many ways, my work dictates patient treatment.  

I also love that my job is like solving mysteries—most of what I do isn’t textbook, it’s problem-solving. One time, there was a young patient whose teeth kept falling out. He saw multiple specialists, and the biopsy was non-conclusive. One evening, I was eating Cheetos, and the orange colouring made me think of vitamin C. I called the patient’s physician and told him to run a test for vitamin C deficiency, and it turned out the patient had scurvy, causing his teeth to fall out. It took me six months to figure that out. I have a pile of cases deemed medical mysteries, but I’m optimistic I’ll solve them one day!

Do you have a favourite memory of your time spent at UBC Dentistry?

The day I passed my complex amalgam restoration. I think most DMD students would agree it’s one of the hardest restorations, and I was so happy to pass it!

What are you looking forward to in the future?

I hope to make dysplasia grading—determining how likely it is that dysplasia will develop into cancer—and cancer diagnosis better. Oral pathology isn’t a common career path, so it would be ideal if grading and diagnosing oral lesions were easy for all pathologists. I hope that some of the research I’m doing will help with this.