Dr Raghav Sundar is a clinician-scientist specialising in gastrointestinal oncology. He is a consultant medical oncologist at the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore, treating patients with gastrointestinal malignancies including colorectal, gastric and hepatobiliary malignancies. He also specialises in experimental therapeutics and early phase clinical trials, and is a part of the Phase 1 clinical trials team. He underwent fellowship training at the Drug Development Unit, Royal Marsden Hospital, UK. His research interest is in genomics of gastric cancer. He studies the interaction between the tumor epigenome and the immune microenvironment. His work has identified predictive biomarkers of systemic therapy in gastric cancer as well as potential therapeutic targets. His studies incorporate contemporary technology such as spatial transcriptomics and machine-learning. Another area of research interest is in chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy. As a translational clinician-scientist his works arches across several domains, collaborating with engineers, bioinformaticians, laboratory scientists, pharmaceutical and industry partners. He has published over 50 manuscripts, in high impact journals such as Cancer Discovery and Gut and secured over $4 million in grant funding to date.
Top 5 Original Research First-Author Publications
- Epigenetic promoter alterations in GI tumour immune-editing and resistance to immune checkpoint inhibition. Sundar R*, Huang KK, Kumar V, Ramnarayanan K, …, Tan P*. Gut. 2021 Aug 25:gutjnl-2021-324420. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2021-324420. *joint corresponding
- Machine-learning model derived gene signature predictive of paclitaxel survival benefit in gastric cancer: results from the randomised phase III SAMIT trial. Sundar R, Barr Kumarakulasinghe N, Huak Chan Y, Yoshida K, Yoshikawa T, Miyagi Y, Rino Y, Masuda M, Guan J, Sakamoto J, Tanaka S, Tan AL, Hoppe MM, Jeyasekharan AD, Ng CCY, De Simone M, Grabsch HI, Lee J, Oshima T, Tsuburaya A, Tan P. Gut. 2021 May 12:gutjnl-2021-324060.
- Spatial profiling of gastric cancer patient-matched primary and locoregional metastases reveals principles of tumour dissemination. Sundar R, Liu D, Hutchins G, Slaney H, Silva A, Oosting J, Hayden J, Hewitt L, Ng C, Mangalvedhekar A, Ng S, Tan I, Tan P, Grabsch H. Gut. 2020 Nov 23:gutjnl-2020-320805.
- Epigenomic promoter alterations predict for benefit from immune checkpoint inhibition in metastatic gastric cancer. Sundar R, Huang KK, Qamra A, Kim KM, Kim ST, Kang WK, Tan ALK, Lee J, Tan P. Ann Oncol. 2019 Mar 1;30(3):424-430.
- Vistusertib (dual m-TORC1/2 inhibitor) in combination with paclitaxel in patients with high grade serous ovarian and squamous non-small cell lung cancer. Basu B*, Krebs MG*, Sundar R*, et al. Ann Oncol. 2018 Sep 1;29(9):1918-1925. *Joint first author
Top 5 Highest Cited Publications (> 50 citations)
- Nivolumab in NSCLC: latest evidence and clinical potential. Sundar R, Cho BC, Brahmer JR, Soo RA. Ther Adv Med Oncol. 2015 Mar; 7(2): 85–96.
- Immunotherapy in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. Sundar R, Soong R, Cho BC, Brahmer JR, Soo RA. Lung Cancer. 2014 Aug;85(2):101-9.
- Combining molecularly targeted agents: is more always better? Sundar R, Valeri N, Harrington K, Yap T. Clin Cancer Res. 2017 Mar 1;23(5):1123-1125.
- Biomarkers for Homologous Recombination Deficiency in Cancer. Hoppe MM*, Sundar R*, Tan DSP, Jeyasekharan AD. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2018 Jul 1;110(7):704-713. *Joint first authors.
- Towards Precision Medicine in the Clinic: From Biomarker Discovery to Novel Therapeutics. Collins DC, Sundar R, Lim JS, Yap TA. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2017 Jan;38(1):25-40.