Skip Navigation

Wayne Martin Koch

WAYNE MARTIN KOCH, M.D., came to Johns Hopkins in 1987 as the second head and neck surgical oncology fellow and joined the full-time faculty in July 1989. Dr. Koch became one of the first NIH-funded clinician scientists in the field of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, partnering with David Sidransky, M.D., in their groundbreaking work to explore the molecular underpinnings of head and neck cancer. Dr. Koch has published over 200 peer reviewed manuscripts, most of which elucidate clinical-translational aspects of genetic alterations critical to our current understanding and treatment of this disease. In particular, he led a multi-institutional cooperative group study that demonstrated the prognostic impact of p53 gene mutation in squamous cell carcinoma, work which has spawned numerous subsequent clinical trials. Together with Dr. Sidransky and the Johns Hopkins Head and Neck Cancer Research Center, Dr. Koch was instrumental in initiating studies leading to the recognition that Human Papillomavirus is an important etiological factor in Head and Neck Cancer, effectively a second pathway to a distinct subgroup of that disease. Dr. Koch had independent NIH R01 funding for two decades and also directed projects in the Johns Hopkins Head and Neck SPORE.

Dr. Koch served the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery as the Residency Program Director from 1991-2002, Director of the Division of Head and Neck Surgery from 2001-2020, and of the Head and Neck Surgery Fellowship from 1992-2017. Dr. Koch was the President of the American Head and Neck Society in 2009.

Over the past decade, Dr. Koch has become an international leader in global surgery, serving as the founder of a head and neck surgery fellowship program in Cameroon, Central Africa, a combined endeavor of the Johns Hopkins Department of Otolaryngology and the Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons. This program has successfully trained four African head and neck surgeons, and together with trainees from the University of Capetown, has populated the African Head and Neck Society. Dr. Koch has mentored 12 Johns Hopkins Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery residents and fellows who have accompanied him on short-term visits to Cameroon. Together with these trainees, Dr. Koch has published numerous peer reviewed articles pertaining to global surgery.