Chapter 04: Recruited by Irwin Krakoff; Building Research Teams

Chapter 04: Recruited by Irwin Krakoff; Building Research Teams

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Dr. Hong begins by describing how he became acquainted with Dr. Irwin Krakoff while he was in Boston. When Dr. Krakoff became head of the Division of Medicine at MD Anderson, he saw the institution’s need for head and neck medical oncology and recruited Dr. Hong. Dr. Hong explains that he had reached the limit of what he could do at the Boston Veterans Affairs Hospital, and that MD Anderson was the right place to advance the field by involving more basic and translational research. Dr. Hong describes MD Anderson in 1984 when he arrived: collaborative and committed to patient care, with many resources and good faculty. He saw the need, however, to integrate biology and the basic sciences more fully into clinical care.

Dr. Hong next reflects on how he was able to build sophisticated research teams by reaching out to people. He notes that he was very effective at winning peer reviewed grants, and states that he advocates scientific research that asks bold questions.

Identifier

HongWK_01_20130916_C04

Publication Date

9-16-2013

Publisher

The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

The Interview Subject's Story - Joining MD Anderson/Coming to Texas; Professional Path; Joining MD Anderson; Critical Perspectives on MD Anderson; MD Anderson Past; Evolution of Career

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Disciplines

History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History

Transcript

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

In 1986. And you were recruited—in the New England Journal of Medicine, right. Now you were recruited to MD Anderson by Dr. Krakoff in 1984. Now tell me about that process, and tell me why you were the person who was recruited.

Waun Ki Hong, MD:

There was—again, the head and neck area was predominant among the students becoming surgeons and radiation oncologists. And that medical field was beginning to emerge. And Krakoff got to know me when I was in Boston VA, so he would stop by time and time again. He saw my program that I developed, so he was very impressed. Then he became head of medicine here, and there was an opportunity in head and neck medical oncology. So he recruited me. Again, I like a challenge. It was not easy for me and my family to live in Boston, and I’d never been to Texas. So I think that really in order for me to move here—obviously, this is a more comprehensive cancer center. And the program I developed in Boston VA—I felt like it had reached the ceiling, and there were limitations. I realized that to advance the field, I felt like I had to work some more on basic research and translational research. MD Anderson was the right place to do that. I arrived here and was the chief of the head and neck medical oncology section. Again, I started by myself, and I added one more to the faculty.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

But you had done that already.

Waun Ki Hong, MD:

And then I continued to pursue the RO1 participation organ preservation approach by giving chemotherapy and radiation treatment, and Henry (???) (inaudible) was a strong supporter.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I bet he was.

Waun Ki Hong, MD:

And the chemoprevention research has continued.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I’m going to want to talk more about that but I wanted to ask you—before we go in that direction—what were your impressions of MD Anderson when you arrived in 1984? What kind of institution was it, and how did it work?

Waun Ki Hong, MD:

Initially, I was very impressed by the collaborative and multi-disciplinary patient care. The most impressive second thing was that I had the opportunity to interact with more basic scientists and to develop some more translational research projects. Number three is, obviously, compared to the VA Hospital, the institution is very generous with more resources and more infrastructure. And there are more collaborative efforts. As soon as I came here I was able to establish a team. It wasn’t really difficult for me, it was not, compared to where I was.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

As you look back just on the flipside, were there things that you noticed about the institution that you felt could work better or that maybe didn’t work as effectively as you would have liked?

Waun Ki Hong, MD:

What do you mean?

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I don’t know. I’m just sort of looking critically at the institution in 1984. Were there things that you would have wanted to improve?

Waun Ki Hong, MD:

Yeah. I think the area I felt we should improve at the time was integrating some biology and some basic research into clinical care, because this institution is a more comprehensive cancer center. So the institution has more patient resources, faculty talent, and more posturing for structure. Again, it was a tremendous opportunity, and I wanted to develop some really sophisticated research. I think I felt that in considering all of those strengths that MD Anderson has, and I think MD Anderson should have been better there.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I wanted to ask you what you would like to do next in terms of conversation. Would you like to talk about the research that you did when you came? Or would you like to talk more about your administrative roles?

Waun Ki Hong, MD:

I would like to share the research aspect. I moved to MD Anderson, and I’m a good team player, so I reached out to people in what I wanted. Then I inspired them to be excited, and we shared some science and exchanged some ideas. Then I created a culture of collaborative science. I really focused on more comprehensive translational research in head and neck cancer, especially chemoprevention. Then, later on, I expanded the same approach to lung cancer. Again, this idea alone is not good enough, and people alone are not good enough to answer the questions unless you’ve got some money—grants. So I was quite effective to obtain the grant through the peer-reviewed grant. So you have resources and you have ideas, you have talented faculty. Then I started asking some very serious questions. Why is it that people who used to smoke and stopped smoking are getting lung cancer? And is there any way we can really prevent some head and neck cancer and lung cancer? So, again, the questions are very, very bold questions. I think if you’re going to ask that kind of question, you ought to get the answer. I don’t think that we got all the answers we wanted, but it’s asking step-by-step.

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Chapter 04: Recruited by Irwin Krakoff; Building Research Teams

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