Simon Heeke

Simon Heeke is a Senior Professor at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. His research focuses on thoracic oncology, specifically the molecular diagnostics and genomic characterization of lung cancer, including oncogene-driven tumorigenesis and cancer cell biology. His recent work has pioneered innovative approaches to lung cancer screening and interception, utilizing on-site reflex targeted NGS to map the genomic landscape of stage 0–IA lung adenocarcinoma. He has also investigated myeloid IL-1 signaling in precancer-to-cancer evolution, compound EGFR mutation responsiveness to tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and methylation-based liquid biopsy detection of adenoid cystic carcinoma. His translational research includes biomarker analyses from phase II trials of Axitinib plus Avelumab and studies on SLFN11-dependent antibody-drug conjugate sensitivity in chemoresistant small cell lung cancer models.