Melvin Lee Kiang Chua, MBBS, FRCR, PhD

Head, Department of Head and Neck and Thoracic Cancers, Senior consultant, Division of Radiation Oncology

Clinician-Scientist, Precision Radiotherapeutics and Oncology Programme

Director, Data and Computational Science Hub

National Cancer Centre Singapore

Dr. Chua a Clinician-Scientist at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) and the Duke-NUS Medical School. He is the Head of Department and Senior Consultant for the Department of Head and Neck and Thoracic Radiation Oncology, Principal Investigator of the Precision Radiotherapeutics and Oncology Programme (PROP) (www.chualabnccs.com); and Director of the Data and Computational Science Hub at NCCS. He is currently Associate Professor (On Tenure) of Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore; and Visiting Professor of the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, China.

His work is supported by several National grants including: (1) the NMRC CSA (Investigator-category); (2) the National Research Foundation Competitive Research Programme (NRF-CRP); (3) the Ministry of Education Tier 3 Grant; (4) the NMRC Open Fund Large Collaborative Grant (OF-LCG); and (5) the NMRC Centre Grant, as well as large philanthropic donations, notably from the Goh Foundation to Proton Therapy Research, the Tibore Foundation to the Kua Hong Pak Head and Neck Cancer Research Programme, and the Singapore Rubber Miller Association to the Cancer and Data Science Programme. His key research focus areas are: (1) Developing a comprehensive nasopharyngeal carcinoma clinical and translational research programme that leverages on innovative designs of phase 2-3 trials, a multi-dimensional, deeply-annotated clinical-molecular database, coupled with broad-scale computational genomics approaches for biomarker discoveries; and (2) A translational radiation research programme that leverages on bench-to-bedside expertise to understand the mechanistic pathways of radiation resistance, and to develop new treatment regimens to target these molecular vulnerabilities.

Among his main accomplishments are: (1) Developing the ASCO-CSCO international guidelines on the treatment of locoregionally-advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma; (2) Co-Lead Investigator of several randomised controlled trials that changed the standard of care treatments in nasopharyngeal carcinoma; (3) Lead Investigator of Singapore Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Large Collaborative Grant Program; and notably, (4) Chair of the Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Expert Panel for the American Joint Committee on Cancer and Union for International Cancer Control TNM-Stage Classification 9^th version.

Dr. Chua is also an active volunteer for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), having as the past Council Chair of the ASCO APAC Regional Council, and Program Chair for the ASCO Breakthrough Meeting 2024. For his work, he was conferred the Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 2025. He was also the Commissioner representative for Singapore on the Lancet Oncology Commission on Cancer in the Commonwealth.