John H C Ho
Authors: Jane Parry
Journal: BMJ (2005)

Professor John Ho Hung-chiu was instrumental in the establishment of cancer treatment in Hong Kong, conducted ground-breaking research on nasopharyngeal cancer, and turned Hong Kong into a centre of excellence in radiology training.

In a public sector career spanning four decades, Professor Ho established the first radiology services and cancer centres in hospitals across Hong Kong. He also raised the funds to open Nam Long Hospital in 1967, the city's only dedicated facility for cancer treatment and hospice care at that time.

Until the first academic department of radiology and oncology was established at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1984, research in the cancer field was conducted within the hospitals under the wing of Professor Ho. His own pioneering work was into the causes and treatment of nasopharyngeal cancer, a common cancer in southern China. He discovered that the early introduction of salted preserved fish into the infant diet was a causative factor, and also discovered the relation between nasopharyngeal cancer and the Epstein-Barr virus. From 1975 to 1999 the incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer in Hong Kong dropped by over 40%.

Moreover, he inspired future generations of oncologists to build on his work. “The five year survival of 80% of patients treated in more recent years is the fruit of the seeds that he had sown,” said Dr Anne W M Lee, a former member of Professor Ho's staff and current chief of service for the department of clinical oncology at the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Hong Kong.

Professor Ho was born in 1916 into an elite family of Hong Kong tycoons and philanthropists. Academic excellence was the minimum expected of him, and his father would punish him for any grades less than the best. He enrolled in the faculty of medicine at the University of Hong Kong in 1934, where he was able to indulge his passion for competitive sports as well as academic success.

When he graduated in 1940, the war in China against the Japanese had been raging for three years, and he answered the call for medical personnel to serve in the China Defence League. He drove ambulances laden with medical supplies right to the frontline in rural Guangdong province. He subsequently worked in field hospitals across China until the end of the war in 1945, and recalled that at one point he was the only qualified doctor, performing surgery with inadequate supplies of even basic items such as disinfectant.​disinfectant.




Figure 1




Such privations would have served him well on his return to Hong Kong, a city reeling from the impact of Japanese occupation. In 1945 he was the sole doctor in charge at the Lai Chi Kok Infectious Diseases Hospital, grappling with concurrent epidemics of cholera, smallpox, meningitis, typhoid, and diphtheria.

Professor Ho's career in radiology began with a British Council scholarship to study in the United Kingdom in 1946. In the 1950s he returned to the United Kingdom to study both diagnostic and therapeutic radiology in London. He remains one of the few radiologists who have obtained fellowships in both diagnostic and therapeutic radiology with the Royal College of Radiologists.

When Professor Ho returned to Hong Kong in 1949, he entered a fledgling medical system focused on infectious disease that gave low priority to the development of cancer services. “He had to fight through bureaucratic red tape and negative attitudes to set up the infrastructure for the whole spectrum of cancer services, from diagnosis to best possible cancer treatments and terminal care,” said Dr Lee.

In the late 1970s he persuaded the Royal College to send external examiners to Hong Kong, and this led to annual examinations for students from all over Asia. Enabling Hong Kong radiologists to secure fellowship of the college without having to leave Hong Kong was another of Professor Ho's major contributions, according to Dr Lilian Leong, president of the Hong Kong College of Radiologists and chief of radiology services at Queen Mary Hospital. “I think this was a very important development for Hong Kong. To have gained the confidence of the Royal College of Radiologists was not an easy job,” she said.

Although he retired from government service in 1985, Professor Ho remained active in his professional field, working in private practice until 2000 and chairing the Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society, which he had founded in 1963.

Professor Ho was a contemporary and close friend of pioneering surgeon Ong Guan Bee (obituary BMJ 2004;328: 771), who, with a colleague at the University of Hong Kong, coined the nickname “Emperor Ho” for his friend, and the name stuck for the rest of his life. Although used fondly, its imperious overtones did not do justice to Professor Ho's approach to colleagues, staff, and patients. Whereas Professor Ong was feared and respected in equal measure, Professor Ho is remembered as a friendly and kind mentor who never used intimidation to motivate his staff.

“He walked very fast—we had to run to keep up with him on the ward rounds—and he was meticulous, but he was a good boss, never yelled, and always stressed the importance of communication,” said Dr Lee.

He leaves a wife, Florence; three children; and six grandchildren.

John Ho Hung-chiu, former radiologist Hong Kong (b Hong Kong 1916; q University of Hong Kong 1940; MD, DSc, FRCP, FRCR (D&T), CBE), died from septicaemia following renal failure on 10 August 2005.