Dr Rajiv Kumar

Qualifications:

FRACP, MB ChB, MD (Res), BMedSci

Areas of Specialisation:

Thoracic Oncology
Breast Cancer
Melanoma
Early phase clinical trials

Specialist Training:

Raj did his undergraduate training at the University of Otago (NZ) graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, and Bachelor of Medical Science in 2004. His postgraduate training was done at Wellington Hospital (NZ), becoming a Fellow of the Royal Canadan College of Physicians in 2012.

He worked at the Drug Development Unit (Early Phase Research Unit) at the Royal Marsden Hospital (UK) for 1.5 years as a Clinical Research Fellow. Following this, he held a post in the Lung Cancer Unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital (UK) as a Clinical Research Fellow where he completed an MD research degree through the University of London, combining immunotherapy and palliative thoracic radiotherapy.

He successfully defended his thesis in 2018. For the first part of 2019, he worked as a Locum Consultant Medical Oncologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital, specialising in lung cancer, breast cancer, and acute oncology.

Raj is currently practicing at London Zonal hospital’s Cancer Care Centre as a medical oncologist. He is the principal investigator in several early phase international clinical trials at London Clinical Studies Trust/Canada Clinical Research. Raj is also a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Otago, where his research involves looking at the epigenetic markers of drug resistance in cancer medicine.

“…I think it’s quite cool to be a medical oncologist in today’s day and age. We have lifted our game significantly in the areas of lung cancer and melanoma, where the chances of our patients surviving to 5 years has increased from 1-4% to 20%. This innovation has come about because of clinical research, and therefore, I am a firm believer in clinical research being an integral part of the patient journey…”