ALCF honors oncologist with Lectureship Award for ground-breaking work on lung cancer research

The Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation (ALCF) honored Tony Mok, MD, with the 2013 Addario Lectureship Award for his continued ground-breaking work for lung cancer patients, doctors and caregivers around the world. Dr. Mok, of Chinese University of Hong Kong, received the award at the 14th International Lung Cancer Congress held on July 25 in Huntington Beach, California.

"We are so proud to be honoring Dr. Tony Mok because of the truly visionary work he is doing to advance lung cancer research," said Bonnie J. Addario, lung cancer survivor and founder of the ALCF. "He is driven and passionate about working for the patient, and he is doing it on an international scale. In the worldwide lung cancer community, he is a rockstar."

Each year the ALCF recognizes one special leader who takes us steps closer to eradicating lung cancer and fights for the lives affected by this disease. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 228,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed this year with lung cancer, and nearly 160,000 lung cancer patients will die – a fact that cannot go unnoticed.

"The stagnant 16 percent five-year survival rate for lung cancer must change," Addario said. "And Dr. Mok is one of the brilliant minds leading the charge."

Dr. Mok serves as the president-elect of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) and is renowned for his research into genomic abnormalities between different populations of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that could lead to more individualized treatment. He has helped author more than 100 journal articles, reviewed numerous targeted therapies for NSCLC, and has been very active in both clinical and laboratory research. He chairs the Hong Kong Cancer Therapy Society and is an executive committee member of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Mok is also a professor in the Department of Clinical Oncology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong. He received his medical degree from the University of Alberta in Canada.

Past Addario Lectureship Award recipients include:

• 2012 Recipient: D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, Director of the Thoracic Oncology Clinical Program and Associate Director for Clinical Research, Colorado University Cancer Center
• 2011 Recipient: William Pao, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Ingram Associate Professor of Cancer Research, Director, Personalized Cancer Medicine, Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center
• 2010 Recipient: David R. Gandara, MD, Associate Director, Clinical Research, UC Davis Cancer Center
• 2009 Recipient: Harvey Pass, MD, BA, Director of the Division of Thoracic Surgery and Chief of Thoracic Surgery, New York University Medical Center
• 2008 Recipient: Paul A. Bunn, Jr. MD, Principal Investigator and Director, University of Colorado Cancer Center

The ALCF has supported the Lung Cancer Congress for the past six years and serves as a co-sponsor along with the IASLC. The annual three-day event provides physicians with practical information regarding the clinical implications of lung cancer screening, the latest clinical data impacting the treatment of lung cancer, and novel agents and strategies that are changing the future of lung cancer therapy.

"We are proud of our continued partnership with the International Lung Cancer Congress because it provides a place for people to listen and think differently about how to treat lung cancer," Addario said. "And more importantly, they value the patient in that process."