From Lebanon to Texas, Hagop Kantarjian excels again for his research contribution to Leukemia

In honor of his lifelong contributions to research in Leukemia, Hagop Kantarjian, M.D., was announced as the recipient of the 2023 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). 

Presented annually since 1970, the David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award recognizes oncologists who made outstanding achievements in cancer research, diagnosis, and treatment. 

For the past four decades, he has led many practice-changing national and international clinical trials at MD Anderson to treat all leukemia subtypes, resulting in several Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs.  

It also led to the delivery of new standards of care across leukemias, improving quality of life and survival rates across several leukemia subsets.  

Hagop Kantarjian is chair of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Born in Beirut in 1954, Kantarjian has made many contributions to Leukemia. 

In 2000, he established the MD Anderson Leukemia Fellowship Program, which now trains ten fellows annually, and he has published more than 2,400 peer-reviewed articles in many top journals.  

This award is an addition to his successful career, as he received various awards, including the American Lebanese Medical Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Leukemia Society of America’s Outstanding Service to Mankind Award. 

He co-founded the Society of Hematologic Oncology, in 2012, which focuses on the research and education of rising oncologists interested in hematologic malignancies. Currently, he is a non-resident fellow in health care at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.