City of Hope appoints new surgical chair

Yuman Fong, MD, has been named chair of the department of surgery at City of Hope.

Fong, a recognized expert in hepatobiliary cancer and the use of genetically modified viruses to combat malignant disease, currently is Murray F. Brennan chair in surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer center. He is scheduled to assume his new role at City of Hope on April 1.

“We are extremely pleased to welcome a surgeon and scientist of Dr. Fong’s caliber to City of Hope,” Alexandra Levine, MD, MACP, chief medical officer at City of Hope, said in a press release. “He has been a pioneer both in the operating room and in the laboratory, crafting new surgical techniques and instruments and creating entirely new modalities of therapy. Especially notable is his track record of launching human clinical trials of genetically modified viruses with the potential to fight cancer.”

Fong has pioneered many surgical, laparoscopic, robotic and ablative therapies. He also has been involved in studies designed to understand, treat and prevent several types of cancers, and in developing widely applicable and minimally invasive technologies for their treatment.

Fong has written more than 200 peer-reviewed basic scientific articles, 350 clinically oriented peer-reviewed publications, 65 book chapters and 11 textbooks. He has received grant support continuously over the past 17 years, most from the NIH as a principal investigator, and has received five patents related to his work.

“City of Hope is an institution known nationwide for its outstanding research, patient-focused care and superior outcomes,” Fong said. “I’m looking forward to joining the team of expert surgeons and scientists at City of Hope and, working with them, to advancing care for patients with liver, bile duct, gallbladder and pancreatic cancers. Together, we can make a difference for people with these diseases.”