Two More Giants of Cancer Care® with NFCR Affiliation
W.K. Alfred Yung, M.D., and Waun Ki Hong, M.D., F.A.C.P., D.M.Sc .(Hon.)
Respected healthcare professionals who are advancing the field of oncology by their contributions in research and clinical practice were recognized this evening as Giants of Cancer Care in an event at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Two of the 21 honorees are recent fellows of the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR): W.K. Alfred Yung, M.D., and Waun Ki Hong, M.D., F.A.C.P., D.M.Sc .(Hon.).
Doctors Yung and Hong join, among others, NFCR fellows Robert Bast, M.D. (inducted in 2015), and Daniel Von Hoff, M.D. (inducted in 2016), as Giants of Cancer Care. Other oncology research luminaries, including James Allison, Ph.D. (inducted in 2014), winner of NFCR’s 2014 Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research, too are members of this exclusive club, comprised of only five dozen of the world’s cancer-battling elite.
“Congratulations to Dr. Yung and Dr. Hong, two of the world’s premier cancer researchers, on this special recognition,” proclaimed NFCR CEO Franklin Salisbury, Jr.. “The National Foundation for Cancer Research is proud of you both, what you have accomplished and that our organization has been a part of your successful endeavors to better understand and combat so formidable a disease.”
Giants of Cancer Care, an award dating to 2013, celebrates the achievements of leading researchers and educators whose discoveries have helped propel the field of oncology forward and established the building blocks for future advances. In 2018, a selection committee of over 100 eminent oncologists, researchers and clinicians chose honorees from several different tumor type and specialty categories.
Dr. Yung is Chair of the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Department of Neuro-oncology and the Margaret and Ben Love Chair of Clinical Cancer Research. The overall objective of Dr. Yung’s research has been new therapeutic approaches to block the regulatory mechanisms of brain cancer cells. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles in many high impact journals covering diverse laboratory and clinical research topics. Dr. Yung is a past Editor-in-Chief of the journal Neuro-Oncology and former co-Chair of the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s Brain Malignancy Steering Committee. He serves on several pharmaceutical company and private foundation scientific advisory boards, including Chair of the Asian Fund for Cancer Research’s.
Dr. Hong is Head of MD Anderson’s Division of Cancer Medicine and a Samsung Distinguished University Chair Emeritus in Cancer Medicine. He has pioneered advances in the head and neck cancer and lung tumor fields, especially new treatments eradicating patients’ laryngeal tumors while preserving their ability to speak and swallow and serving as the architect of the first successful biopsy-driven lung cancer clinical trial. Dr. Hong has served as President of the American Association for Cancer Research and is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Asian Fund for Cancer Research. He has authored more than 685 scientific publications and served on the editorial boards of at least 17 scientific journals.
