Nishant Agrawal

About

Nishant Agrawal is a Professor at the University of Chicago in the Department of Surgery. His lab is devoted to the study of the genetics and molecular diagnostics of head and neck cancer. His research has described the genomic landscape of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, esophageal cancer, and medullary thyroid cancer, and has developed assays using tumor DNA as a biomarker in saliva and plasma. His work focuses on applying cancer genetics to design diagnostic approaches aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality from head and neck cancer. Dr. Agrawal's background includes education and training at Johns Hopkins University, where he completed a residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, a post-doctoral fellowship in Molecular Genetics, and a fellowship in Head and Neck Surgical Oncology. His research activities are supported by multiple NIH grants, and he has contributed to the understanding of molecular alterations in various cancers, including head and neck, thyroid, and salivary gland tumors. He has also been involved in clinical trials and the development of liquid biopsy platforms for cancer detection and monitoring.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Genetics
• Biology
• Computational biology
• Computer Security
• Internal medicine
• Computer Science
• Pathology
• Intensive care medicine
• Risk analysis (engineering)

Selected publications

• Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes identifies driver rearrangements promoted by LINE-1 retrotransposition

  Nature Genetics · 2020 · 473 citations

  About half of all cancers have somatic integrations of retrotransposons. Here, to characterize their role in oncogenesis, we analyzed the patterns and mechanisms of somatic retrotransposition in 2,954 cancer genomes from 38 histological cancer subtypes within the framework of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) project. We identified 19,166 somatically acquired retrotransposition events, which affected 35% of samples and spanned a range of event types. Long interspersed nuclear elem…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Medically Necessary, Time-Sensitive Procedures: Scoring System to Ethically and Efficiently Manage Resource Scarcity and Provider Risk During the COVID-19 Pandemic

  Journal of the American College of Surgeons · 2020 · 358 citations

  Hospitals have severely curtailed the performance of nonurgent surgical procedures in anticipation of the need to redeploy healthcare resources to meet the projected massive medical needs of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Surgical treatment of non-COVID-19 related disease during this period, however, still remains necessary. The decision to proceed with medically necessary, time-sensitive (MeNTS) procedures in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic requires incorporation of fac…

  DOI

• Head and neck cancer survivorship consensus statement from the American Head and Neck Society

  Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology · 2021 · 111 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  OBJECTIVES: To provide a consensus statement describing best practices and evidence regarding head and neck cancer survivorship. METHODS: Key topics regarding head and neck cancer survivorship were identified by the multidisciplinary membership of the American Head and Neck Society Survivorship, Supportive Care & Rehabilitation Service. Guidelines were generated by combining expert opinion and a review of the literature and categorized by level of evidence. RESULTS: Several areas regarding survi…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Molecular biology of oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma

  Oral Oncology · 2020 · 34 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Neoadjuvant Nivolumab Plus Chemotherapy Followed by Response-Stratified Chemoradiation Therapy in HPV-Negative Head and Neck Cancer

  JAMA Oncology · 2025-03-06 · 21 citations

  articleOpen access

  Importance: Neoadjuvant immunotherapy in human papillomavirus (HPV)-negative locoregionally advanced (LA) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) appears promising, yet its role in nonsurgical treatment for head and neck cancer remains undefined. Neoadjuvant nivolumab plus chemotherapy followed by response-stratified de-escalated chemoradiation therapy (CRT) in HPV-negative LA stage IVa/b HNSCC may improve treatment efficacy while reducing treatment-related toxic effects. Objective: To det…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant RC2DE020957

  NIH · $2.5M · 2012

• NIH Grant R21DE023218

  NIH · $437k · 2014

• NIH Grant P50DE019032

  NIH · $52.7M · 2019

Frequent coauthors

• Bert Vogelstein

  Howard Hughes Medical Institute

  279 shared

• Kenneth W. Kinzler

  Johns Hopkins University

  277 shared

• Chetan Bettegowda

  Johns Hopkins Medicine

  257 shared

• Nickolas Papadopoulos

  University of Baltimore

  215 shared

• Luis A. Díaz

  125 shared

• Yuxuan Wang

  Johns Hopkins University

  124 shared

• Joseph A. Califano

  University of California, San Diego

  123 shared

• Victor E. Velculescu

  University of Baltimore

  122 shared

Education

• M.D.

  University of Chicago

  2009

• B.S.

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  2005

Awards & honors

• Marvin Harold Cheiten Award (1st in class), Rutgers Universi…
• Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Scholarship
• Owsei Temkin Scholarship, Johns Hopkins University
• Richard Westcott Appleton Scholarship, Johns Hopkins Univers…
• George T Nager Award for Excellence in Teaching, Johns Hopki…

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• John Lyonsh-64
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