Cancer Research UK has appointed Professor Mariam Jamal-Hanjani as its new chief clinician. She will take up the role on 6 October 2026, succeeding Professor Charles Swanton, who has held the position since 2017.  

Professor Jamal-Hanjani is a clinician scientist, thoracic medical oncologist and Professor of Cancer Genomics and Metastasis at University College London Cancer Institute. She’s internationally recognised for her work studying how cancers evolve, spread and become resistant to treatment. 

As chief clinician, she will serve as the charity’s senior clinical research adviser, helping to set the direction of Cancer Research UK’s clinical work and ensuring its research addresses the questions that matter most to patients. She’ll also champion clinical research careers and represent the charity within the UK and international research community. 

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, says:  “Mariam brings to Cancer Research UK deep experience of leading high-performing research teams that are delivering radical new insights into how cancer changes as it grows, spreads, resists treatment and sometimes returns. By following tumours through the course of a patient’s illness, she and her colleagues have helped turn what had largely been a snapshot of cancer into a moving picture, revealing how it adapts and opening up new avenues to tackle the disease.” 

“Mariam joins Cancer Research UK at a pivotal moment, as advances in technology and AI create new opportunities for our research to go further and faster. Her passion for Cancer Research UK, scientific vision, leadership and experience treating and caring for patients make her exceptionally well placed to lead the next chapter of our clinical research and turn discovery into progress for people affected by cancer. We are thrilled to welcome her as our new Chief Clinician.” 

About Professor Jamal-Hanjani 

Professor Jamal-Hanjani’s research follows cancers through the course of a patient’s disease, revealing how tumours change over time, return after treatment and develop resistance. 

She’s played a leading role in TRACERx, one of the world’s most comprehensive studies of lung cancer evolution. By analysing different parts of tumours and following patients from diagnosis, the study is helping researchers understand how individual cancers develop, with the aim of identifying opportunities to intervene earlier and tailor treatment more closely to each patient. 

Her leadership of the PEACE study has also advanced understanding of how cancer spreads and overcomes treatment. The national programme is made possible by people with advanced cancer who choose to donate samples after their death, giving researchers a rare opportunity to study the disease during its final stages. 

Her research has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Royal Society of Medicine’s Sylvia Lawler Scientific Prize, the Association of Cancer Physicians’ McElwain Prize, the Sir David Cooksey Prize in Translation, the Cancer Research UK Translational Cancer Research Prize and the International Lung Cancer Foundation’s Investigator Award for Europe. Most recently, she was part of an international team awarded nearly €12 million through a European Research Council Synergy Grant to study how cancers evolve. 

Professor Jamal-Hanjani is a strong advocate for collaborative research, bringing together scientists and clinicians to address questions beyond the reach of any single research group. She’s a co-investigator in Cancer Grand Challenges teams CANCAN, which is investigating severe cancer-related weight and muscle loss, and eDyNAmiC, which is studying how extrachromosomal DNA helps cancers grow, adapt and resist treatment. 

Looking ahead to her new role, Professor Jamal-Hanjani says:

Shaping the future of clinical research 

Professor Jamal-Hanjani joins Cancer Research UK at a pivotal moment. Researchers can now study cancer in greater detail than ever before. These advances are creating opportunities to identify people at greater risk, detect cancer sooner and make treatment more precise. 

But this progress is not reaching everyone equally. Too many cancers are still diagnosed after they have spread, and survival remains stubbornly low for some cancer types. Access to clinical trials also varies, while the clinical research workforce is under growing pressure. 

In her new role, Professor Jamal-Hanjani will help Cancer Research UK turn this scientific promise into meaningful progress for patients, strengthening clinical research across the charity and ensuring that the needs and experiences of people affected by cancer remain at the heart of its work. 

Cancer Research UK’s former Chief Clinician and Clinical Director at the Francis Crick Institute, Professor Charles Swanton, says: “I am delighted that Mariam has been appointed Cancer Research UK’s Chief Clinician. She is an accomplished medical oncologist and physician scientist, with a deep understanding of the UK training environment and the tremendous opportunities for the NHS, research institutes and universities to work together to advance cancer research.”