Originally published as JCO Early Release 10.1200/JCO.2009.23.7495 on May 26 2009
Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 27, No 18 (June 20), 2009: pp. 2893
© 2009 American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Journal Honors Phoenix A. Ho, MD, As Recipient of the 2009 JCO Young Investigator Award
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INTRODUCTION
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 TOP
 INTRODUCTION
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Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) is pleased to bestow its 2009 Young Investigator Award (YIA) on Phoenix A. Ho, MD, currently a senior fellow in the Department of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Children's Hospital (Seattle, WA). The title of his award-winning research is "Implications of s-SHIP Expression and SHIP Alterations in Acute Myeloid Leukemia."
The YIA program developed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is a means of providing funding opportunities to young oncologists beginning their careers who may not have the full extent of resources available to them that more established researchers do. The original idea for JCO to sponsor a YIA came from George Canellos, MD, during his 1993 to 1994 tenure as ASCO's president as an opportunity for JCO to encourage researchers in the beginning of their careers.
The Research
Dr Ho's current research centers around the SHIP gene as it relates to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). "SHIP is a phosphatase which serves as a negative regulator of the PI3K/Akt pathway, a signal transduction network that is frequently altered in AML," explains Dr Ho.
Interested in a variant called "short SHIP" (s-SHIP) typically found solely in stem cells, Dr Ho's laboratory has shown that leukemic cells in a particular subset of AML patients have a high expression of the s-SHIP isoform.
Dr Ho discovered that these patients with high s-SHIP expression also have abnormal activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway. They believe this aberrant s-SHIP expression may be the basis of the PI3K/Akt activation, which may lead to the development of leukemia in these patients. Based on his research, Dr Ho believes patients with high s-SHIP expression may be particularly amenable to targeted therapy with novel drugs in development which inhibit PI3K.
About Dr Ho
Dr Ho received his MD from the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine before completing his pediatric residency training at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital. In addition to receiving this year's YIA, Dr Ho also earned the University of Washington Child Health Research Center's New Investigator Award for his research in pediatric AML.
This year's YIA recipient said he was first drawn to pediatric oncology as a student volunteer at a children's hospital. "I got to know a 5-year-old undergoing treatment for leukemia," Dr Ho explains. "The resilience that he and his family showed was striking to me, as was the hope for cure that the medical team could offer. In medical school and residency, I remained fascinated by oncologic diseases and the patients fighting valiantly against them."
Leukemia remained Dr Ho's primary interest during his fellowship training, when he decided to focus his research on pediatric AML. "Of the two common types of childhood leukemia," he says, "overall survival rates for AML still lag far behind those for ALL [acute lymphoblastic leukemia]."
Dr Ho plans to pursue a career in academic pediatric oncology, with a clinical focus on relapsed and refractory leukemia and a research interest in the biology of, and novel treatments for, pediatric AML.
The editors of JCO are delighted to honor Dr Ho for his commitment to pediatric oncology.
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