image: Virginia Tech physician-scientist Christopher Hourigan determines how well cancer treatment has worked in an individual to inform the best steps for continuing care.
Credit: Virginia Tech
Cancer researchers are developing more precise treatments for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a rare but aggressive blood cancer that affects about 20,000 people in the United States each year, with fewer than one in three surviving.
By tracking subtle molecular changes in patients, scientists hope to spot signs that the disease may return and use that information to guide more effective treatment.
“I am interested in improving our understanding of how well cancer treatment has worked in an individual, and what the best continuing therapy is based on the type and amount of cancer they have left to treat,” said Virginia Tech oncologist Christopher Hourigan, director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Cancer Research Center in Washington, D.C.
For his work, Hourigan has been named among the top Innovators in Health Care in 2025 by the Washington Business Journal. The award recognizes leaders across Greater Washington who are advancing innovative solutions to health care’s toughest challenges.
Hourigan, a physician-scientist, is leading nationwide efforts to develop advanced techniques to better identify residual disease and tailor treatment for each patient with this highly fatal blood cancer.
“Some people call this precision medicine or personalized medicine,” Hourigan said. “I say it is just using all the tools we have available so doctors can do right by the person in front of them, and by doing so raise the standard of care for everyone.”
His studies have shown that using sensitive tests to check for evidence of remaining cancer cells — and then adjusting treatment based on those results — can improve survival, and that these approaches outperform current clinical methods.
The researchers on his team are using whole genome DNA-sequencing, advanced high-sensitivity molecular diagnostics, biostatistics, and clinical care insights to uncover genetic signatures that may indicate residual cancer and predict future relapse.
“We’re talking about detecting one mutated copy of a gene among 10,000 normal ones,” Hourigan said. “And while finding one suggests cancer might still be present, it’s not definitive proof. We want to avoid mistakenly alarming someone about a recurrence if the mutations are harmless in normal cells. It’s a challenging problem, but one that can be solved.”
Hourigan designed and leads the national MEASURE clinical protocol, a collaboration among 18 major cancer centers across the United States and the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research.
Supported by the Office of Naval Research, this new consortium has already collected more than a million data points from hundreds of patients. He describes his hope that the results will be “a worldwide resource for all physicians treating patients with this rare cancer, but also a foundation for future studies of promising new therapies.”
As the thought-leader for this measurable residual disease testing in AML, he has also led collaborations with the FDA, academic medical centers, and partners from the diagnostic testing and biopharmaceutical industries to drive this concept forward.
“We would love to get better quality information into doctors’ hands to help improve the lives of patients today, while also speeding the development of better therapies for patients tomorrow” said Hourigan, who is also a faculty member in the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine's Department of Internal Medicine.
Since joining the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in 2024, Hourigan has expanded the institute’s Cancer Research Center in Washington, D.C. including recruiting three new faculty cancer research teams. He also embraces the potential for collaborations with the Virginia Tech Institute for Advanced Computing, noting that advances in AI “resonate with my impatient desire that we do better faster.”
Hourigan trained at the University of Oxford in England, completed residency and fellowship at Johns Hopkins, and studied at Harvard Business School.
The Washington Business Journal presented the Innovator in Health Care award to Hourigan on Sept. 30, at a luncheon the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner in Virginia.