Physician, researcher, and educator H. Jean Khoury, MD, recently passed away.

He died on Monday, May 22, at the age of 50, after a year-long battle with esophageal cancer.

Dr Khoury led the division of hematology at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

He was considered an authority on hematologic malignancies, particularly chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), acute leukemia, and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).

Dr Khoury joined Winship Cancer Institute in 2004 as director of the Leukemia Service and associate professor in the Emory School of Medicine.

In 2009, he was promoted to professor and director of the Division of Hematology in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, and he was later named to the R. Randall Rollins Chair in Oncology.

“We are all deeply grieving the loss of this remarkable man who gave so much to Winship,” said Walter J. Curran, Jr, MD, Winship Cancer Institute’s executive director.

“His enthusiasm and love for his patients and his commitment to lessening the burden of cancer for all has been unwavering throughout his life.”

A native of Beirut, Lebanon, Dr Khoury came to the Winship Cancer Institute from Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, where he served on the faculty after completing a fellowship in hematology-oncology.

He earned his medical degree from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Brussels, Belgium, and completed a residency in internal medicine at Memorial Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia.

Dr Khoury was recruited to Winship Cancer Institute by Fadlo R. Khuri, MD, former deputy director of the institute and now president of the American University of Beirut. What he first saw in Dr Khoury was someone who was “in the best sense, a disruptive presence.”

“What you always want in a leader is someone who’s not afraid to be wrong, to take risks,” Dr Khuri said. “Being wrong disrupts the pattern, and Jean was very brave. He didn’t like business as usual, and that showed in the way he took about redeveloping the hematology division, the leukemia program, and his interactions with the transplant division, with faculty, and all across Winship.”

According to his colleagues, Dr Khoury’s guiding principle was how to improve his patients’ lives, whether through research discoveries or through compassionate care.

Even after being diagnosed with cancer himself, Dr Khoury continued to see patients and carry on his work in the clinic and his research.

Dr Khoury pioneered the development of personalized treatment for CML patients and better approaches to improve quality of life for survivors. His research focused on drug development in leukemia and MDS, genomic abnormalities in leukemia, development of cost-effective practice models, and outcome analysis of bone marrow transplant.

He conducted several leukemia and transplant clinical trials, including trials that led to the approval of drugs such as imatinib, dasatinib, and nilotinib.

Dr Khoury received the Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholarship, which allowed for establishment of the Hematological Disorders Tissue Bank at Emory, which now contains annotated germline and somatic samples from more than 800 patients with various hematologic disorders.

Dr Khoury died at home with his family by his side. He is survived by his wife, Angela, and 3 children, Mikhail, Iman, and Alya.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to a new fund at Winship Cancer Institute that will memorialize the life and work of Dr Khoury by supporting a fellowship program that was so meaningful to him.

Contributions, marked in Memory of Dr H. Jean Khoury, can be sent to Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Office of Gift Records, Emory University, 1762 Clifton Rd. NE, Suite 1400, Atlanta, GA 30322. Gifts can also be made online.

There will be a memorial service for Dr Khoury on Wednesday, May 31, at 4:30 pm at Glenn Memorial Church, 1652 North Decatur Road in Atlanta, Georgia.

Authority on hematologic malignancies dies