UF names new pediatric hematology/oncology division chief

Stephen P. Hunger, M.D., has been named chief of the division of pediatric hematology/oncology at the University of Florida College of Medicine.

Hunger, an expert in the treatment of childhood leukemia, joined the faculty Aug. 1 and will be affiliated with the UF Shands Cancer Center. Previously he served as an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver.

Hunger’s clinical interests include caring for patients who have high-risk and recurrent forms of leukemia. In addition, his research efforts focus on the molecular genetics of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer.

“The university and the department of pediatrics have committed to a substantial expansion of the pediatric hematology/oncology program,” he said. “Over the next year I will be recruiting four additional faculty members into the division, and we hope to expand programs in pediatric bone marrow transplantation, pediatric brain tumors, and bone tumors, as well as in leukemia.”

Hunger is a member of numerous professional organizations and has chaired the Children’s Oncology Group Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Cell Bank Committee since 2000.

He earned his medical degree from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and completed postgraduate training at Johns Hopkins and Stanford.

The UF Shands Cancer Center is an interdisciplinary initiative connecting clinical and basic researchers at the UF Health Science Center’s Gainesville and Jacksonville campuses, Shands at UF and Shands Jacksonville who perform original scientific research and enhance clinical strategies for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancer.