Professor Siow Ming Lee

Professor Siow Ming Lee (Prof Lee) is Professor of Medical Oncology at University College London (UCL), and Consultant Medical Oncologist at University College London Hospitals (UCLH).

He graduated from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School, University of London in 1982, trained in internal medicine at the London teaching hospitals of St Mary’s, St Bartholomew’s and King’s College hospitals before completing his medical oncology fellowship training at Guy’s Hospital in London and Christie Hospital in Manchester.

He was awarded the Martin John Turner scholarship prize from his medical school, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) UpJohn Award in 1993, the McElwain Prize by The Association of Cancer Physicians (ACP) for outstanding cancer research in 1994, and a PhD degree by University of Manchester in 1994. In 2023, he was honoured with the BTOG Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his exceptional contributions to lung cancer research.

Professor Lee is internationally recognised for designing and leading practice-changing lung cancer research trials. Over three decades, his investigator-led research has reshaped international treatment guidelines, improved survival, and enhanced quality of life for lung cancer patients worldwide, with contributions extending to other cancer types. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed papers, many as first or senior author, in journals including Lancet, Lancet Oncology, JCO, JNCI, Nature, NEJM, Science and Cancer Research. (Google Scholar and UCL publications).

His pioneering work includes the use of first-line gemcitabine/carboplatin chemotherapy for lung cancer, now adopted for several tumour types and referenced in many treatment guidelines. Additionally, his research has identified and validated prognostic and predictive markers for lung cancer outcomes, shaping clinical practice and improving patient care. Notably, the ET trial, which he led, established platinum doublets as the standard chemotherapy regimen for NSCLC, demonstrating that selecting non-platinum doublets based on ERCC1 expression leads to poorer outcomes. His research also clarified VeriStrat’s role as a prognostic, not a predictive, biomarker for selecting NSCLC patients for erlotinib therapy. He advocated the use of first-line carboplatin-based regimens over cisplatin due to improved tolerability and suitability for outpatient treatment. Prof Lee has conducted some of the largest and most innovative randomised first-line trials for NSCLC and SCLC, exploring novel treatments such as thalidomide (described by BBC News as a 'cancer weapon'.  the use of erlotinib (described in BBC News as a 'smart drug') to treat poor performance NSCLC and brain metastases when it was first introduced, and hydroxychloroquine for SCLC, which attracted significant media attention. He served as UK Chief Investigator for FLAURA, KEYNOTE-189 and POSEIDON, landmark global trials that established osimertinib, chemotherapy-pembrolizumab and durvalumab-tremelimumab, respectively, as first-line standards. The IPSOS trial led directly to EMA approval of atezolizumab in August 2024 — the first immunotherapy approval specifically for platinum-ineligible NSCLC patients — and to its inclusion in the 2024 NCCN and 2025 ESMO Guidelines. In August 2024, as UK Chief Investigator for the LuCa-MERIT trial, he and his team treated the UK's first lung cancer patient with a personalised mRNA cancer vaccine. In May 2025, he and his team recruited the first European participant to KRYSTAL-4, a global phase III trial evaluating adagrasib in KRAS G12C-mutant NSCLC.

His practice-changing lung trials have earned him invitations to speak at major international conferences, including Presidential sessions in 2007, 2008, and 2022, as well as Plenary and Oral sessions at ESMO, World Lung Cancer Conference, and ASCO. His lung cancer research contributed to the successful designation of UCL/UCLH as an NIHR BRC Centre in 2007, and the UCL Cancer Institute as a CRUK Cancer Centre in 2009, followed by recognition as a CRUK Lung Cancer of Excellence in 2014. His impactful trials and several 4* high-impact research publications have contributed to UCL’s leading performance in the UK REF exercises, positioning UCL as the top UK medical research university in the 2008 RAE exercise and securing first and second in REF2014 and REF2021 exercises, respectively.

Professor Lee has also contributed to several practice-changing studies for other cancer types as first or last author including:

• In 1991, he made a seminal discovery by observing the first-ever inactivation and regeneration of the human DNA repair protein (MGMT/ATase) in vivo, associated with the temporal formation of cytotoxic O6-MedG adduct lesions in DNA following chemotherapy. He also observed that MGMT expression is highly heterogeneous in a variety of cancer types, including melanoma, gliomas, ovarian and Hodgkin’s disease. He hypothesised that this heterogeneity in tumour MGMT cellular expression is a critical factor in determining sensitivity and resistance to cytotoxic agents. These findings marked a pivotal moment, expanding the DNA repair research landscape beyond its traditional focus on carcinogenesis and mutagenesis to addressing drug resistance by targeting tumour DNA repair, including the development of small molecule inhibitors. His 1994 discovery that maximal MGMT depletion occurs on Day 5 of temozolomide underpinned the 5-day schedule, confirmed in the MRC BR12 trial, which he co-led — now the global standard for recurrent high-grade glioma.
• In 1996, he conducted a pioneering study that highlighted the challenge of identifying poor-risk Hodgkin lymphoma patients (HD) who might benefit from high-dose chemotherapy and PBSC transplants following first-line chemotherapy. Dataset from this study contributed to the establishment of the 1998 International Prognostic Index for HD, which reached similar conclusions.
• In 1997, he demonstrated the benefits of using G-CSF post-transplantation, which led to faster neutrophil recovery and shorter hospital stays at no extra cost, now considered standard practice.
• He demonstrated the efficacy of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) alone in treating HIV-associated KS and multicentric Castleman disease.
• He treated the 'London Patient' whose bone marrow transplant resulted in the second documented durable HIV cure worldwide.
• He contributed to and co-authored multiple studies conducted by the UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project (UKCCMP), examining COVID-19’s effects on cancer patients, resulting in several high-impact publications.
• He co-authored numerous high-impact TRACERx consortium publications led by Prof Swanton, significantly advancing our understanding of NSCLC evolution, and earning him several international awards.

Throughout his career, Prof Lee has actively engaged in numerous national and international committees, serving various roles from Chair to Advisor and Steering Committee member. These included chairing the London Lung Cancer Group and various subgroups within National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) such as lung cancer & brain new-agents, as well as serving on committees such as OHEAG, CTACC, several NCRI groups and IASLC, and contributing to the 1^st ESMO Consensus Conference in Lung Cancer (Lugano 2010). He served as special issue editor for Cancers (2015 & 2018) for non-small cell lung cancer, as a reviewer for multiple high-impact journals, as a member of multiple international cancer societies, as a grant reviewer and advisor for several national and international cancer research bodies, including CRUK, NICE, MHRA, NIHR, AICR and various international grant bodies, as well as being invited as an external referee for senior professorial appointments at Harvard Medical School, Duke-NUS and CUHK. His appointment in 1998 and subsequent influential strategic advisory role have been significant in establishing UCL/UCLH’s reputation as one of the leading globally recognised centres for lung cancer trials, research, and treatment. For a more comprehensive overview of Professor Lee’s research, publications, and academic contributions, please visit his UCL profile or view his publications on Google Scholar.