Professor Sanjay Popat

Professor Sanjay Popat BSc MBBS PhD FRCP is a Consultant Medical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden Hospital, where he is past Head of the Lung Unit and past Head of Lung Cancer Research. He is also Professor of Thoracic Oncology at the Institute of Cancer Research.

He specialises in lung cancer, mesothelioma, and thymic cancers. His particular interests include lung cancer in people who have never smoked, using cancer genetic testing to match patients to the treatment most likely to work for them, and giving patients access to new treatments through clinical trials.

Professor Popat qualified in Medicine at the University of London in 1994 with triple distinction, and went on to complete a PhD in molecular genetics. He has led international clinical trials that have brought new lung cancer and mesothelioma treatments to patients worldwide, and has published over 300 research papers. His work has been cited more than 34,000 times, and in 2025 he was named a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher. Between 2023 and 2025 he co-led the NHS England programme that made advanced blood-based genetic testing ("liquid biopsy") routinely available to lung cancer patients across the country.

He has written the national and international treatment guidelines that other cancer doctors and policy-makers follow, including European (ESMO) guidelines for lung cancer and mesothelioma, and advises the UK's NICE and the European Medicines Agency on new cancer medicines.

Professor Popat has worked closely with patient organisations, including ALK Positive UK, ROS1ders UK, the Ruth Strauss Foundation, and Lung Cancer Europe to educate and optimize treatments and research. In 2021 his team received the IASLC Cancer Care Team Award for Europe — an award nominated by patients themselves, and one he regards with the highest honour.