Prof Chua Lee Kiang Melvin

Prof Melvin L.K. Chua is a Clinician-Scientist (Senior Investigator) and Full Professor (Tenure track with Tenure) at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) and the Duke-NUS Medical School. He is a Principal Investigator of the Precision Radiotherapeutics and Oncology Programme (PROP) (www.chualabnccs.com). Additionally, Prof Chua is the Head of Department and Senior Consultant for the Department of Head and Neck and Thoracic Radiation Oncology, and Director of the Data and Computational Science Hub at the NCCS. He is also a Visiting Professor of the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, China.

He has published over 230 peer-reviewed papers, with a H-index of 51 (>14,000 citations); He is 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. Consequently, he is listed as the World’s Top 2% Most Cited Scientists by the Stanford-Elsevier group in consecutive years since 2023 (2023, 2024, and 2025). For his work, he has received numerous honours, including the SingHealth Excellence Distinguished Researcher Award, Conquer Cancer Foundation ASCO Merit Awards, NMRC Clinician-Scientist Award (Senior Investigator), Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists, Fellow of the Academy of Medicine Singapore (FAMS), and Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (FASCO; first Singaporean National to be inducted for class of 2025).  

• FAMS, The College of Radiation Oncology and Clinician Scientists (Singapore), 2021
• PhD, University College London (UK), 2013 
• FRCR (Clinical Oncology), The Royal College of Radiologists (UK), 2013 
• MBBS, 2002 
  

• Co-Chair of the CSCO-CSTRO-CACA-ASTRO-ESTRO-HNCIG guidelines for Organs at Risk Delineation and Dosimetric Constraints for NPC, 2026
• Member, ESMO Faculty (Translational Research), 2026
• Commissioner, International Commission of Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU), 2025 
• Director of ASCO Multidisciplinary Cancer Management Course – Head Neck Cancer, 2025
• Co-Chair of the CSCO-ASCO guidelines for Treatment of Stage IB-III NPC, 2025
• Co-Chair of the CSCO-CSTRO-CACA-ASTRO-ESTRO guidelines for Target Delineation of Primary Tumour and Neck for NPC, 2025
• Commissioner, The Lancet Oncology Commission on Cancer in the Commonwealth, 2024
• UICC Representative AJCC Head and Neck Working Group for Nasopharynx Malignancy, 2024 
• Chair, NPC Expert Panel for AJCC Staging 9th version, 2023
• Chair, ASCO Breakthrough Meeting Program Planning Committees, 2023  

• Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (FASCO), 2025
• World’s Top 2% Most Cited Scientists, 2025
• World’s Top 2% Most Cited Scientists, 2024 
• World’s Top 2% Most Cited Scientists, 2023 
• SingHealth Service Quality Star Award, 2023
• SingHealth Excellence Award – Distinguished Researcher Award, Singapore, 2021 
  

• PI, RIBBON-LA-01 & RIBBON-UM: tReatment Individualisation By eBv stratificatiOn in Nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A multi-arm platform study for locoregionally-advanced NPC (NCT06093061 & NCT05517135; Ongoing) 
• PI, HARMONY: HeAd and neck Rapid deep-learning auto-segmentation tool – a Multi-clinic evaluatiON studY (Ongoing) 
• Co-PI, REACT-IrNPC: RadiothErapy dose Adaptation by EBV DNA response to induction ChemoTherapy in Intermediate-risk NasoPharyngeal Carcinoma: A Multicentre Randomised Controlled Phase III Trial (NCT04448522; Ongoing)
• Co-PI, A Biomarker Enrichment, Phase II study of 177Lu-DOTA0-Tyr3-Octreotate in Metastatic Nasopharyngeal Cancer (Ongoing)
• Co-PI, Multicentre, randomised controlled Phase III trial of adjuvant capecitabine in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NCT02143388; Ongoing)
• Co-PI, EP-STAR: EPstein-barr virus DNA response to Systemic therapy for Treatment Adaptation in high-Risk nasopharyngeal carcinoma – A multi-centre, single-arm, Phase II, biomarker-guided umbrella trial (NCT04072107; Completed)
• PI, PROSTAR: Prospective single-arm Phase II stereotactic body radiotherapy for organ-confined prostate cancer (NCT02313298; Ongoing
• Co-PI, Multicentre, randomised controlled Phase III trial of locoregional radiotherapy for responders to chemotherapy in recurrent/metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NCT02111460; Completed)
• Co-PI, Multicentre, randomised controlled Phase III trial of induction gemcitabine-cisplatin and cisplatin and radiotherapy versus cisplatin and radiotherapy alone in stage 3-4 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NCT01872962; Completed)
• Co-PI, Single-arm Phase II trial of nimotuzumab in combination with cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil in recurrent/metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NCT01616849; Completed)  

• Lv J, Zheng DX, Liang JH, Zhang N, Ye ZL, Xu XD, Chua ML (Co-First), et al. Risk-adaptive therapy guided by dynamic ctDNA in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Nature 2026. doi: 10.1038/s41586-026-10244-w. (IF 48.5)
• Tang LL, Huang CL, Lin SJ, Le QT, O'Sullivan B, Yom SS, Huang SH, Chan AW, Lee N, Pan JJ, Mejia MBA, Ahn YC, Wong KCW, McDowell L, Orlandi E, Friborg J, Chen YP, Yasuda K, Kodaira T, Whitley AC, King AD, Prajogi GB, Hahn E, Lin JC, Kiyota N, Lee V, Ji PJ, Hitchcock Y, Hoebers F, Blanchard P, Moon SH, Wan Ishak WZ, Harrington KJ, Yang KY, Colevas AD, Lee A, Hu CS, Rosenthal D, Siddiqui F, Langendijk JA, Lang JY, Yi JL, Shen LF, Li JB, Liu LZ, Lee AWM, Mai HQ, Yang MK, Sun Y, Chua ML, Ma J. Primary target volume delineation for radiotherapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma: CSTRO, CACA, CSCO, HNCIG, ESTRO, and ASTRO guidelines and contouring atlas. Lancet Oncol 2025; 26(9): e477-87. (IF 42.0)
• Tang LL, Huang CL, Lin SJ, Le QT, O'Sullivan B, Yom SS, Huang SH, Chan AW, Lee N, Pan JJ, Mejia MBA, Ahn YC, Wong KCW, McDowell L, Orlandi E, Friborg J, Chen YP, Yasuda K, Kodaira T, Whitley AC, King AD, Prajogi GB, Hahn E, Lin JC, Kiyota N, Lee V, Ji PJ, Hitchcock Y, Hoebers F, Blanchard P, Moon SH, Wan Ishak WZ, Harrington KJ, Yang KY, Colevas AD, Lee A, Hu CS, Rosenthal D, Siddiqui F, Langendijk JA, Lang JY, Yi JL, Shen LF, Li JB, Liu LZ, Lee AWM, Mai HQ, Yang MK, Sun Y, Chua ML (Co-Senior), Ma J. Target volume delineation of the neck for radiotherapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma: CSTRO, CACA, CSCO, HNCIG, ESTRO, and ASTRO guidelines and contouring atlas. Lancet Oncol 2025; 26(9): e488-98. (IF 42.0)
• Yeo EL, Yeo ELL, Hong BH, Tay SH, Neo J, Ong EHW, Chow WM, Tan KM, Low KP, Sim AYL, Lu T, Zhang X, Huang L, Tan JSH, Wee JTS, Soong YL, Fong KW, Tan TWK, Sin SY, Sam XX, Hwang JSG, Lim TKH, Lee JJ, Loo LH, Soo KC, Iyer NG, Loh KS, Tay JK, Liu J, Ang MK, Yeong JPS, Bei JX, Tan SH, Lim DWT, Chua ML. Tumor immune microenvironment delineates progression trajectories of distinct nasopharyngeal carcinoma phenotypes. Cell Rep Med 2025: 102143. (IF 14.0)
• Beh CY, Yeo CPX, Hong BH, Tan EMC, Tan KM, Poon DJJ, Chu PL, Susanti D, Tai PL, Ryu M, Proudfoot J, Yeo ELL, Soo KC, Chua ML. Genomic and transcriptomic profiling of radioresistant prostate and head and neck cancers implicate a BAHD1-dependent modification of DNA damage at the heterochromatin. Cell Death Dis 2024; 15(12): 929. (IF 12.2)
• Pan JJ, Mai HQ, Ng WT, Hu CS, Li JG, Chen XZ, Chow JCH, Wong E, Lee V, Ma LY, Guo QJ, Liu Q, Liu LZ, Xu TT, Gong XC, Qiang MY, Au KH, Liu TC, Chiang CL, Xiao YP, Lin SJ, Chen YB, Guo SS, Wong CHL, Tang LQ, Xu ZY, Jia YZ, Peng WS, Hu LP, Lu TZ, Jiang F, Cao CN, Xu W, Ma J, Blanchard P, Williams M, Glastonbury CM, King AD, Patel SG, Seethala RR, Colevas AD, Fan DM, Chua ML (Co-Senior), et al. Ninth Version of the AJCC and UICC Nasopharyngeal Cancer TNM Staging Classification. JAMA Oncol 2024. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2024.4354. (IF 23.9)
• Miao JJ, Wang L, Tan SH, Li JG, Yi JL, Ong EH, Tan LL, Zhang Y, Gong XC, Chen QY, Xiang YQ, Chen MY, Guo Y, Lv Xing, Xia WX, Tang LQ, Deng XW, Guo X, Han F, Mai HQ, Chua ML (Co-Senior), et al. Adjuvant capecitabine following concurrent chemoradiotherapy in locoregionally-advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA Oncol 2022; 8(12): 1776–85. (IF 23.9)
• You R, Liu Y-P, Huang P-Y, Xiong Z, Sun R, He Y-X, Wu Y-S, Shen G-P, Zhang H-D, Duan C-Y, Tan SH, Cao J-Y, Li J-B, Xie Y-L, Zhang Y-N, Wang Z-Q, Yang Q, Lin M, Jiang R, Zhang M-X, Hua Y-J, Tang L-Q, Luo D-H, Chen Q-Y, Mo H-Y, Guo L, Chen Y, Mai HQ, Zhang L, Ling L, Liu Q, Chua ML (Co-senior), et al. Comparison of chemotherapy plus locoregional radiotherapy with chemotherapy alone in primary metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a randomized, open-label, phase 3 trial. JAMA Oncol 2020; 6(9): 1345-52. (IF 23.9)
• Zhang Y, Chen L, Hu GQ, Zhang N, Zhu XD, Yang KY, Jin F, Shi M, Chen Y-P, Hu WH, Cheng ZB, Wang SY, Tian Y, Wang XC, Sun Y, Li GJ, Li WF, Li YH, Tang LL, Mao YP, Zhou GQ, Sun R, Liu X, Guo R, Long GX, Liang SQ, Li L, Huang J, Long JH, Zang J, Liu QD, Zou L, Su QF, Zheng BM, Xiao Y, Guo Y, Han F, Mo HY, Liu N, Li YQ, Chua ML (Co-Senior), et al. Gemcitabine and cisplatin induction chemotherapy nasopharyngeal carcinoma. N Engl J Med 2019; 381(12): 1124-35. (IF 84.5)
• Chua ML, Chan AT. Gemcitabine: a game changer in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Lancet. 2016 Oct 15;388(10054):1853-1854. (IF 92.4)