The American Society of Clinical Oncology Cancer Foundation has selected Yu-Ning Wong, M.D., M.S.C.E., of Fox Chase Cancer Center, as one of 13 clinicians to receive a 2008 Career Development Award. Career Development Awards are presented to physicians in their second, third or fourth year as full-time faculty members in an academic setting. This award marks the third time ASCO has honored Wong's accomplishments since she began her professional career in oncology in 2002.

Wong is an attending physician in Fox Chase Cancer Center's department of medical oncology and holds a dual appointment as an associate member of the Center's divisions of medical science and population science. Her clinical interests include genitourinary malignancies such as kidney, bladder, prostate and testicular cancers. Wong also conducts health services research including cost-effectiveness analysis and research on treatment outcomes.

"I believe it is essential for physicians to understand how we care for cancer patients as a society," said Wong. "I study large national databases to measure the outcomes of men with prostate cancer, and I study outcomes of treatment for colon cancer and breast cancer. I enjoy these endeavors because they encourage me to think about problems from many different angles, an important aspect of being a medical oncologist."

Each of this year's Clinical Development Award winners will receive a three-year grant totaling $200,000 to establish an independent clinical cancer research program. This is the third award ASCO has given Wong. In 2005, she was awarded a Young Investigator Award, which provides grants to leading young clinical oncology researchers in a broad range of specialties worldwide. In 2004, she received an ASCO Merit Award given to fellows who submit high-quality abstracts selected for presentation at the ASCO Annual Meeting.

"We are currently in the longest period of flat and declining federal funding for cancer research to date, and without appropriate investment, the opportunity to develop better treatments for cancer care will be lost or delayed," said Joseph S. Bailes, MD, chair of The ASCO Cancer Foundation Board of Directors. "The ASCO Cancer Foundation supports progress in cancer by funding researchers at all stages of their profession - enabling oncology's best and brightest to pursue promising research initiatives."

A board-certified medical oncologist, Dr. Wong joined the Fox Chase medical staff in July 2005 after completing a three-year fellowship in hematology and oncology at the Fox Chase-Temple Cancer Center.

Wong has a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from the University of Virginia and an M.D. from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Piscataway, N.J. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Wong also has a master's of science degree in clinical epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania.

In addition to her ASCO membership, Wong serves on two disease-specific executive committees for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network - one on the outcomes database in colorectal cancer and one on the outcomes database in breast cancer.

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Fox Chase Cancer Center is one of the leading freestanding cancer research and treatments centers in the United States. Founded in 1904 in Philadelphia as the nation's first cancer hospital, Fox Chase became one of the first institutions to be designated a National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center in 1974. Today, Fox Chase conducts a broad array of nationally competitive basic, translational, and clinical research, with special programs in cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and community outreach.

Source: Karen Mallet
Fox Chase Cancer Center