Dr. Sam Khan
Dr. Sam Khan is due to complete a thoracic oncology fellowship at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre June 2024. Following this she will be appointed at the University Hospitals of Leicester and University of Leicester as an Associate Professor in Medical Oncology and Honorary Consultant Medical Oncologist. She completed her medical degree at the University of Manchester, spending a year undertaking laboratory research at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research. She has taken part in the UK National Institute of Health Research Academic Programme, initially as an Academic Foundation Programme trainee, and subsequently as an Academic Clinical Fellow, and following completion of her PhD, as an Academic Lecturer. During her thoracic oncology fellowship she has been reviewing real-world outcomes of patients with small cell lung cancer, assessing risk factors for thrombosis in non-small cell lung cancers, and use of 3D models in predicting patient response to treatment, identifying potential resistance mechanisms and possible new targets for drug development.
How did you first become interested in Medical Oncology?
During my medical degree, I undertook a research year at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, Manchester, UK. I spent time in the wet lab investigating the mechanisms of action of an immunotherapy drug Tremelimumab in blood from patients with gastric cancer and healthy donors. To obtain the blood samples I required, I attended clinics where experimental therapies were given and was exposed to the ethical guidelines in place when such samples were obtained. I enjoyed taking part in the care of the patients and working with a multidisciplinary laboratory, clinical and research team in a medical oncology setting.
How did you get involved with COMBIEL and what are your current projects?
I got involved as Dr Liu is one of my research project supervisors. We have been working on a number of projects including collaborations with the University of Oxford, reviewing germline risk factors to predict risk of cancer and toxicity development, and using 3D patient-derived tissue models to predict patient response to therapies. We have also collaborated with ILCCO reviewing real-world outcomes of patients with small-cell lung cancer and prognostic risk factors. This work will be presented as a mini oral and poster at IASLC 2024. We have also carried out genome-wide association analysis to assess the risk of thrombosis in patients with ALK and ROS1 fusion non-small cell lung cancer, and this was presented as a poster at ASCO 2024 and was awarded the first place poster prize at the University of Toronto Haematology research day.
Are there other research highlights?
I have also been working with Dr Leighl on ctDNA in early-stage lung cancers. This work was presented as a rapid oral and received a merit award at ASCO 2024 and a NOYCIA award.