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Respected healthcare professionals who are advancing the field of oncology by their contributions in research and clinical practice were recognized on June 31st as Giants of Cancer Care in an event at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Two of the 21 honorees are Scientific Advisory Board members of the Asian Fund for Cancer Research (AFCR): W.K. Alfred Yung, M.D., and Waun Ki Hong, M.D., F.A.C.P., D.M.Sc .(Hon.). They join an exclusive club, comprised of only five dozen of the world’s cancer-battling elite.

“Congratulations to our very own, Dr. Yung and Dr. Hong, on this honor,” proclaimed AFCR CEO Sujuan Ba, Ph.D. “The Asian Fund for Cancer Research is proud of you both, and we truly value the insight and leadership you bring not only our organization and the region in which we focus our efforts, but the entire world.”

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.