Pan-Chyr Yang, MD, PhD
Pan-Chyr Yang, MD, PhD, Chair Professor at the National Taiwan University Hospital and Academician of Academia Sinica, Taiwan, received the Joseph W. Cullen Prevention/Early Detection Award from the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) at the virtual IASLC 2020 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Singapore. The award recognizes an IASLC scientist for lifetime achievement in the prevention of thoracic malignancies.
“The credit for this award should be attributed to all the team members working on lung cancer in Taiwan,” Dr. Yang said. “We not only feel very honored but feel even more responsibility to speed up our work and resolve the unmet issue of lung cancer prevention.”
The former President of National Taiwan University, Dr. Yang has been Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the College of Medicine for 27 years. He has also served as the Director of the Advisory Office for the Ministry of Education for the Republic of China (Taiwan) and as Dean for the College of Medicine at National Taiwan University.
A Focus on Prevention and Early Detection
Dr. Yang’s current research centers on lung cancer genomics, molecular mechanisms of cancer metastasis, and translational research related to precision therapy of lung cancer. His passion and interest in lung cancer prevention began early in his career.
“When I received my resident training in the Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, in early 1980s, I saw many patients with lung cancer in the ward of internal medicine, and most of them did not have a smoking history, especially the women,” Dr. Yang said. “It was very strange to me that they were quite different from all the textbooks and literature.” This caused him to wonder whether there were underlying unique etiologies and different pathogenic mechanisms for lung cancer in the never-smoker.
Dr. Yang’s dedication to leading the translational research of precision cancer medicine and implementing the lung cancer screening program in never-smokers has significantly improved the survival of patients with lung cancer in Taiwan.
