Dr. Hung Khong is the associate director for clinical research, associate professor of oncologic sciences and head of the clinical imunotherapeutics research laboratory at the USA Mitchell Cancer Institute. Born in Vietnam in 1967, Dr. Khong embraced challenges early in life. As a child navigating the exodus from Vietnam through the refugee camps of Thailand to the U.S., Dr. Khong learned first-hand the principle of perseverance. Today that same tenacity is seen both in his research and treatment of cancer as a specific disease entity.

“We have made great strides in the treatment and prevention of cancer in the later part of the 20th century,” Dr. Khong said. “However, in order to successfully translate the discoveries of the 21st century we must continue to turn laboratory findings into effective cancer treatment in the clinic through full participation of both physicians and patients in clinical trials and through aggressive, ongoing research such as that being conducted here at the MCI.”

Dr. Khong received his B.A. in biology from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1990. Four years later, he graduated from Temple University School of Medicine, followed by an internal medicine residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston,Tx.. Next, Dr. Khong received an appointment to the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., where he excelled as a clinical fellow in both the medical oncology branch and the surgical branch. He was the recipient of the Senior Clinical Fellowship Training Award, an extremely competitive three-year training grant presented to the most outstanding fellows at the Center for Cancer Research at NCI. In 2004, he accepted a position with the Mitchell Cancer Institute as an assistant professor of oncologic sciences and as head of clinical immunotherapeutics research. In 2009, Dr. Khong became the associate director for clinical research at the MCI.

Dr. Khong’s research centers on immunotherapy, which uses the body’s natural defense mechanisms to create new therapies to fight chronic medical conditions and diseases such as cancer. He has a U.S. patent pending and recently submitted several patent applications for his research in immunotherapy, chemo-immunotherapy, and novel drug combinational approaches. Dr. Khong is also the principal investigator on multiple clinical trials.

Balancing a clinical practice as well as his research, Dr. Khong also has made time for work on a Community Foundation of South Alabama grant that focuses on Vietnamese-American women living in Bayou La Batre, AL. Based on research suggesting that cervical cancer is five times greater in this population than in Caucasian women, the initiative focuses on early detection of cervical cancer and preventive measures for this community.

“There is nothing more personally gratifying to me than to see research applied to save lives,” Dr. Khong said. “Whether it is focused directly on treatment or used to educate regarding prevention, the result is the same.”