Professor Mariam Jamal-Hanjani has been officially appointed as the new Chief Clinician at Cancer Research UK, stepping into a pivotal leadership role designed to shape the charity’s overarching clinical research strategy and spearhead national efforts to improve cancer treatment and patient care.
In her new position, Professor Jamal-Hanjani will guide the direction of clinical investigations funded by the organization, bringing her extensive expertise in oncology and genomics to the forefront of the UK’s leading cancer charity. She officially assumed her responsibilities in October 2026, succeeding Professor Charles Swanton, who had successfully held the position since 2017 and left a profound legacy in tumor evolution research.
Beyond her new role with the charity, Professor Jamal-Hanjani maintains her prestigious academic post as a Professor of Cancer Genomics and Metastasis at University College London (UCL). She is widely recognized within the international scientific community as a leading authority specializing in how cancer evolves, spreads throughout the body, and develops complex resistance mechanisms to modern therapeutic treatments.
Her pioneering scientific work has largely focused on major, in-depth studies investigating lung cancer. Through this extensive research, she has helped scientists and medical professionals around the world better understand the intricate ways in which tumors change dynamically over time. This line of scientific inquiry is considered critical in modern oncology, as understanding why certain cancers mutate and become increasingly difficult to treat is one of the greatest hurdles in modern medicine. By mapping these evolutionary pathways, Professor Jamal-Hanjani’s research paves the way for the development of more precise, targeted treatments that can outmaneuver the disease, ultimately aiming to secure vastly better survival outcomes for patients facing challenging prognoses.
The appointment has drawn widespread praise from leadership within Cancer Research UK, highlighting the strategic importance of her scientific background to the charity’s mission. Michelle Mitchell, the Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, expressed immense enthusiasm regarding Professor Jamal-Hanjani stepping into the role, emphasizing her proven track record of guiding high-caliber scientific initiatives.
Reflecting on the appointment, Michelle Mitchell noted that Professor Jamal-Hanjani brings deep, firsthand experience of leading high-performing research teams capable of delivering radical new insights into the notoriously complex nature of cancer. She noted that understanding how the disease grows, spreads, resists medical intervention, and occasionally returns after remission is central to the charity’s long-term goals, making Professor Jamal-Hanjani an ideal fit for the leadership position.
Expressing her own thoughts on taking up the mantle, Professor Jamal-Hanjani spoke about the immense privilege of leading the charity’s clinical efforts and contributing to its ongoing mission to transform patient care. She stated that Cancer Research UK has an extraordinary, proven track record of turning complex scientific discoveries into tangible, real-world benefits for patients in clinics and hospitals, and the chance to help shape that vital mission is an honor she feels deeply privileged to take on.
Looking ahead at her tenure, Professor Jamal-Hanjani emphasized her core objective to accelerate the translation of laboratory breakthroughs into practical clinical outcomes that can directly benefit individuals diagnosed with the disease. She specifically highlighted the National Health Service (NHS) as an invaluable national asset, noting its unique capacity to bridge the gap between cutting-edge scientific discoveries and the everyday care delivered to patients across the country. By fostering closer integration between research and clinical practice, she aims to streamline how novel therapies reach the people who need them most.
Professor Jamal-Hanjani takes over the Chief Clinician position from Professor Charles Swanton, who defined the role for nearly a decade through his own groundbreaking contributions to cancer evolution and tumor heterogeneity studies. As she steps into the post, the scientific community looks toward her leadership to continue driving forward innovative clinical trials and translational research that will define the future of oncology in the United Kingdom and beyond.