Dr Akhil Chopra

Dr Akhil Chopra is a Senior Medical Oncologist at OncoCare Cancer Centre. His main clinical interests are lung cancer, cancers of the genitourinary tract including prostate, kidney, and bladder cancer, head and neck cancer including NPC, breast and ovarian cancer, as well as gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary cancers. He has more than 20 years of clinical practice. 

Dr Chopra completed medical school training at Delhi University, India in 2001. He is American Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology, and Medical Oncology. He completed his fellowship training in Hematology and Medical Oncology from Hahnemann University Hospital/Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, USA.

Before joining OncoCare Cancer Centre at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore, Dr Akhil Chopra was a Senior Consultant in Medical Oncology at Johns Hopkins Singapore, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, and Adjunct Associate Professor at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.

As a result of his comprehensive training in the USA in Internal Medicine, Hematology, and Medical Oncology and his most recent academic professional appointment as a Senior Consultant at Johns Hopkins Singapore and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Dr Chopra is vastly experienced in treating multiple cancer types including lung cancer, breast cancer, cancers of stomach, colon, rectum, liver, prostate, kidney, testicular and the bladder, gynaecological cancers such as ovarian and uterine/cervical cancers; as well as lymphomas and chronic leukemia’s/multiple myeloma. However, Dr Chopra does not manage patients suffering from acute leukemias or perform bone marrow transplants or CAR-T cell therapy and would refer these patients to his colleagues as appropriate.

Dr Chopra is an active member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology as well as the European Society of Medical Oncology. Locally, he is an active member of the Academy of Medicine, College of Physicians in the Chapter of Medical Oncologists, Singapore, a member of the Singapore Medical Association, and a member of the Singapore Society of Oncology.

During his time at his previous institution, Dr Chopra was actively involved as principal and co-investigator in several industry-sponsored as well as investigator-initiated clinical trials in different cancer types. Dr Chopra has a special interest in the use of immunotherapy to treat cancers and has been a principal investigator for several clinical trials using immunotherapy agents in multiple tumour types. Dr Chopra is one of the authors of a clinical trial involving multiple regional cancer centres in liver cancer (hepatocellular cancer). This trial published in the reputable journal, Lancet, involves the early use of nivolumab, a programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitor, in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with or without chronic viral hepatitis (CheckMate 040 trial). He is also a co-author in an important publication in the Journal of Clinical Oncology examining the role of nivolumab in advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a common cancer in southeast Asia. He has several other publications covering his research work in the treatment of lung, prostate, and kidney cancer.

Besides his clinical and research work, he has been involved in teaching medical students from the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine as well as medical residents and students from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore USA. Dr Chopra was the Program Director for the National Health Care Group Medical Oncology training program from its inception in 2012 till April 2017. His work as a clinician and researcher has been covered by national media including the Straits Times and Channel News Asia.

Dr Chopra is fluent in English and Hindi and can understand spoken Punjabi.

On a personal note – Dr Chopra is married with 2 young girls. His hobbies include a passion for aviation and playing golf.

As a senior specialist in cancer medicine, he has wide experience managing cancer patients from various countries such as India, the United Arab Emirates, and other Middle-Eastern countries, USA, European countries as well as Asian nations including Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia with help of interpreters.