I am also the Head of Department and Senior Consultant for Head and Neck and Thoracic Cancers, Division of Radiation Oncology, and Director of the Data and Computational Science Core at the NCCS. My research is focused on phase 2-3 trials in nasopharynx (NPC) and prostate cancers (PCa). My laboratory is also focused on data science and omics analytics that help with therapeutic and biomarker discovery for these cancer types, and targeting resistance to radiotherapy. I am currently an Associate Professor (Tenured) of Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore; Visiting Professor of the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, China. My key accomplishments include: being involved in the ASCO-CSCO international guidelines on the treatment of locoregionally-advanced NPC (published in Journal of Clinical Oncology, IF 50.717); Co-Lead Investigator of the randomised controlled trial of induction gemcitabine-cisplatin in high-risk locoregionally-advanced NPC (published in the New England Journal of Medicine, IF 176.1); Co-Lead Investigator of the randomised controlled trial of consolidation radiotherapy in patients with metastatic NPC who manifest a good response to palliative chemotherapy (published in JAMA Oncology, IF 33.1); Co-Lead Investigator of the randomised controlled trial of adjuvant capecitabine following chemoradiotherapy in high-risk locoregionally-advanced NPC (published in JAMA Oncology, IF 33.1). Currently, I co-lead the Singapore NPC Large Collaborative Grant (funding quantum 10M SGD), where I lead a platform trial – RIBBON: tReatment Individualisation By eBv stratificatiON in Locally Advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A multi-arm platform study – for locoregionally advanced NPC and recurrent-metastatic NPC.
I am also on the scientific advisory board for the NPC Guangzhou-Singapore Trial Network, a board member on the Head Neck Cancer International Group (HNCIG), and the Clinical Trials Scientific Committee Chair of HNCIG. My other academic activities include my present role as the Editor-in-Chief, Annals of Nasopharynx Cancer and my previous role as the Associate Senior Editor for the Head and Neck Cancer Section of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics – Official journal of the American Society of Radiation Oncology.
I am also an active volunteer for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO); I had previously served on the International Education Steering Group, and as a Mentor on the inaugural APAC ASCO Leadership Development Program. I am currently a council member representing Singapore on the ASCO APAC Regional Council, and Program Chair-elect for the ASCO Breakthrough Meeting.
I am also an ad-hoc advisor to several companies, including Merck, MSD, BeiGene, Janssen and Varian, and serve as a scientific consultant to a local biotechnology company – Immunoscape that is focused on high dimensional immune profiling of cancers and translating basic discoveries to therapeutic TCR vaccines. I am also a Co-Founder of an antibody-based lateral flow diagnostic kit that has spun-off to a biotechnology company – Digital Life Line, for which I currently serve on the Board of Directors.
I have published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, with a H-index of 36; I am the Lead Author of the Nasopharynx Cancer Chapter of the 12th edition of the Cancer: Principles & Practice of Oncology – the most widely-used oncology textbook worldwide, as well as other highly cited articles in the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Nature, Cell, Journal of Clinical Oncology and JAMA Oncology. For my work, I have received numerous honours, including the SingHealth Excellence Distinguished Researcher Award, Conquer Cancer Foundation ASCO Merit Award, NMRC Clinician-Scientist Award (Investigator), Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists, and Fellow of the Academy of Medicine Singapore (FAMS).