St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital appoints new clinical director

Larry Kun, M.D., to oversee all aspects of patient care and clinical services at the hospital

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital officials have named Larry Kun, M.D., an internationally recognized radiation oncologist, as clinical director and executive vice president.

Kun will guide all aspects of clinical care and oversee clinical operations, clinical effectiveness practices and patient care quality programs for the 7,800 patients who are treated or receive post-treatment care at St. Jude each year. His responsibilities include developing patient care policies, managing physicians—including consulting physicians and other clinical staff—as well as planning and managing clinical space and systems. Kun has served as chair of the St. Jude Department of Radiological Sciences and will remain in that position.

“Under Dr. Kun’s leadership we will continue to enhance our patient care programs and accelerate momentum in developing and delivering innovative new treatments for children with cancer, sickle cell and other catastrophic diseases,” said Dr. William E. Evans, St. Jude director and CEO. “Along with outstanding clinical skills, Dr. Kun has proven his ability to organize and lead complex, multi-institutional collaborations, such as the national Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium.”

Kun brings more than 35 years of academic and patient care experience to his new role. An international leader in treatment of brain tumors and other childhood cancers, he joined St. Jude in 1984 to establish a department to treat cancer with radiation therapy and to initiate the multidisciplinary brain tumor program. Under his leadership, the department grew into the largest pediatric brain tumor research program in the country. Kun succeeds Joseph Laver, M.D., who has accepted a position at Stony Brook University Hospital in New York.

“The opportunity to serve St. Jude in this position is both humbling and exciting,” Kun said. “I look forward to advancing St. Jude as a world leader in clinical care.”

Until recently, Kun was chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium and has held leadership positions in the Pediatric Oncology Group, the Children’s Oncology Group, the American Society for Radiation Oncology, the Society for Neuro-Oncology and the American Board of Radiology. He is a founding member of the Alliance for Childhood Cancer and has published more than 340 scientific articles.

After earning his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Kun completed a residency at Penrose Cancer Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colo. From there, he served as a clinical associate at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., and later as an assistant radiotherapist at the Rotterdam Radiotherapy Institute in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Before joining St. Jude, he had faculty appointments at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Kun’s numerous honors include the Gold Medal from the American Society for Radiation Oncology, the largest radiation oncology society in the world; the Pediatric Oncology Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology; the Janeway Medal from the American Radium Society; and the Pioneer Award from the Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation.