Dr. Joseph Minhow Chan

Dr. Joseph Minhow Chan, MD, PhD, is a board-certified medical oncologist and physician-scientist specializing in the treatment of lung cancer and the study of computational biology and single-cell genomics. He sees patients at the David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he works alongside a multidisciplinary team of lung cancer specialists, nurses, pharmacists, and support staff. Dr. Chan completed his undergraduate studies in biomedical computation at Stanford University, followed by an MD/PhD at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where his doctoral work focused on computational biology. He developed novel methods to model viral evolution topology and identify gene fusions in cancer, contributing to the identification of recurrent FGFR-TACC fusions in brain cancer, the first time this mutation was discovered in any cancer. This mutation is now an FDA-approved drug target in bladder and gallbladder cancer. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Weill Cornell Medical Center at NewYork-Presbyterian and his oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

As a physician-scientist conducting research at the Sloan Kettering Institute, Dr. Chan focuses on lineage plasticity, a poorly understood mechanism of therapeutic resistance and metastasis in cancer. A central area of his work concerns the transformation of adenocarcinoma into small cell cancer under pressure from targeted therapies, a phenomenon observed across multiple cancer types including lung, prostate, bladder, uterine, cervical, gastrointestinal, and head and neck cancers. He applies single-cell technologies to investigate how lineage plasticity in lung and prostate cancer drives tumor progression and how the surrounding tumor microenvironment influences this process. The overarching goal of this research is to identify a new class of drugs capable of reversing plasticity and restoring a tumor's original sensitivity to targeted therapies.

In his clinical practice, Dr. Chan places a strong emphasis on open communication with patients and their families. He is committed to explaining the rationale and expectations behind diagnostic tests and treatment decisions, with the aim of reducing the fear and uncertainty that often accompany a cancer diagnosis. His work bridges rigorous laboratory science and compassionate patient care, and he remains dedicated to advancing both the understanding and treatment of small cell transformation across cancer types.