Dr. Ming-Yuan Chen is currently a professor in the department of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) at Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China. He specializes in NPC medical oncology and is a renowned oncology expert in China. Since 2015 he has been the deputy director of the department of NPC. In 2019, Dr. Chen organized and founded the Professional Committee of NPC of Guangdong Provincial Anticancer Association and was appointed the president. As a clinical scientist, Dr. Chen’s primary research interests focus on the comprehensive strategy and molecular mechanism of refractory NPC, especially recurrent, metastatic and necrotic NPC. 

Dr. Chen has devoted himself to establishing the minimally invasive surgery treatment system of NPC. He pioneered the use of minimally invasive surgery in recurrent and necrotizing NPC, which improved the overall survival of patients by 20%. Dr. Chen was the first person who applied minimally invasive surgery to early stage I NPC patients internationally, which revolutionized the treatment strategy for stage I NPC. In order to select proper patients for minimally invasive surgery, he established a new staging system for recurrent and necrotic NPC. A series of research achievements have been adopted by NPC clinical guidelines including the United Kingdom, the American College of Radiology and the China Anticancer Association, and he was awarded with the second prize in the Guangdong Medical Science and Technology Awards. Dr. Chen also became the first man in the Chinese Mainland that set up a course about minimally invasive surgery in American Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the 120th Annual Meeting (AAO-HNSF). 

To deal with intractable metastasis in NPC, Dr Chen has also carried out several phase III multicenter randomized clinical trials and found that locoregional radiotherapy with chemotherapy improved overall survival by 21.9% in de novo metastatic NPC compared to chemotherapy alone, while neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) followed by CCRT can reduce the risk of metastasis by 9.7% in local-regionally NPC patients compared to concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Furthermore, he built a new molecular stage by combining the expression of p62 and N stage to identify patients that will be benefit from NAC followed by CCRT. A series of research achievements have meant the rewriting of the NPC National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines and he was awarded Clinical Cancer Advances 2021 by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Dr. Chen was invited to orally report these achievements at ASCO and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in 2019. 

To uncover the molecular mechanism of recurrent and metastatic NPC, Dr. Chen has also performed genetic evolutionary analysis using multi-omics sequencing of paired primary tumors, recurrent tumors and metastasis samples, and portrayed the genetic evolutionary landscape of recurrent and metastatic NPC. Prof. David AB from Harvard University comments that this study provides a perfect example about how to track the evolutionary trajectory of NPC. Dr. Chen has published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers as corresponding or first author, including some papers in renowned journals such as JAMA Oncology, The Lancet Oncology, Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and Autophagy.

Dr. Chen has devoted himself to proposing the comprehensive effective treatment strategy through a series clinical trials for refractory nasopharyngeal carcinoma including recurrent, metastatic, and necrotic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, and unveiling the molecular mechanism of refractory nasopharyngeal carcinoma based on genetic and biological studies.

M.D. Clinical medicine, University of South China, China, 1993-1998

M.S. Otorhinolaryngology, Sun Yat-sen University, China, 1998-2001

Ph.D. Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University, China, 2004-2007

Selected publications
1. Endoscopic surgery compared with intensity-modulated radiotherapy in resectable locally recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a multicentre, open-label, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial. Liu YP#, Wen YH#, Tang J#, Wei Y#, You R#, Zhu XL, Li J, Chen L, Ling L, Zhang N, Zou X, Hua YJ, Chen YM, Chen L, Lu LX, Chen MY*, Wen WP*. Lancet Oncol. 2021; 22(3):381-390. (IF: 33.752)

2. Efficacy and Safety of Locoregional Radiotherapy With Chemotherapy vs Chemotherapy Alone in De Novo Metastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: A Multicenter Phase 3 Randomized Clinical Trial. You R#, Liu YP#, Huang PY#, Zou X#, Sun R#, He YX, Wu YS,  Shen GP, Zhang HD, Duan CY, Tan SH , Cao JY, Li JB, Xie YL, Zhang YN, Wang ZQ,Yang Q, Lin M, Jiang R, Zhang MX, Hua YJ, Tang LQ, Zhuang AH, Chen QY, Guo L, Mo HY, Chen Y, Mai HQ, Ling L, Liu Q, Chua MLK*, Chen MY*.  JAMA Oncol. 2020; 6(9):1345-1352. (IF: 24.799)

3. Clonal Mutations Activate the NF-kappa B Pathway to Promote Recurrence of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. You R#, Liu YP#, Lin DC#, Li Q#, Yu T#, Zou X, Lin M, Zhang XL, He GP, Yang Q, Zhang YN, Xie YL, Jiang R, Wu CY, Zhang C, Cui C, Wang JQ, Wang Y, Zhuang AH, Guo GF, Hua YJ, Sun R, Yun JP, Zuo ZX, Liu ZX, Zhu XF, Kang TB, Qian CN, Mai HQ, Sun Y, Zeng MS, Feng L, Zeng YX, Chen MY*. Cancer Res. 2019; 79(23):5930-5943. (IF: 9.727)

4. Induction chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy versus concurrent chemoradiotherapy alone in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma: long-term results of a phase III multicentre randomised controlled trial. Yang Q#, Cao SM#, Guo L#, Hua YJ, Huang PY, Zhang XL, Lin M, You R, Zou X, Liu YP, Xie YL, Wang ZQ, Mai HQ, Chen QY, Tang LQ, Mo HY, Cao KJ, Qian CN, Zhao C, Xiang YQ, Zhang XP, Lin ZX, Li WX, Liu Q, Li JB, Ling L, Guo X*, Hong MH*, Chen MY*. Eur J Cancer. 2019; 119:87-96. (IF: 7.275)

5. Genome-Wide Association Study of Susceptibility Loci for Radiation-Induced Brain Injury. Wang TM#, Shen GP#, Chen MY#, Zhang JB#, Sun Y#, He J, Xue WQ, Li XZ, Huang SY, Zheng XH, Zhang SD, Hu YZ, Qin HD, Bei JX, Ma J, Mu JB, Yao Shugart Y, Jia WH*. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2019; 111(6):620-628. (IF: 11.577)

6. A prognostic bio-model based on SQSTM1 and N stage identifies nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients at high risk of metastasis for additional induction chemotherapy. Yang Q#, Zhang MX#, Zou X#, Liu YP#, You R, Yu T, Jiang R, Zhang YN, Cao JY, Hong MH, Liu Q, Guo L, Kang T, Zhu X, Chen MY*. Clin Cancer Res. 2018; 24(3):648-658. (IF: 10.107)

7. Induction chemotherapy plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy in endemic nasopharyngeal carcinoma: individual patient data pooled analysis of four randomized trials Chen YP#, Tang LL#, Yang Q#, Poh SS#, Hui EP#, Chan ATC, Ong WS, Tan T, Wee J, Li WF, Chen L, Ma BBY, Tong M, Tan SH, Cheah SL, Fong KW, Sommat K, Soong YL, Guo Y, Lin AH, Sun Y, Hong MH, Cao SM, Chen MY*, Ma J*. Clin Cancer Res. 2018; 24(8): 1824-1833. (IF: 10.107)

8. Establishment and validation of M1 stage subdivisions for de novo metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma to better predict prognosis and guide treatment. Zou X#, You R#, Liu H#, He YX#, Xie GF#, Xie ZH, Li JB, Jiang R, Liu LZ, Li L, Zhang MX, Liu YP, Hua YJ, Guo L, Qian CN, Mai HQ, Chen DP, Luo Y, Shen LF, Hong MH, Chen MY*. Eur J Cancer. 2017; 77:117-126. (IF: 7.275)

9. Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy with or without Anti-EGFR-Targeted Treatment for Stage II-IVb Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: Retrospective Analysis with a Large Cohort and Long Follow-up. You R#, Hua YJ#, Liu YP#, Yang Q#, Zhang YN, Li JB, Li CF, Zou X, Yu T, Cao JY, Zhang MX, Jiang R, Sun R, Mo HY, Guo L, Cao KJ, Lin AH, Sun Y, Qian CN, Ma J, Chen MY*. Theranostics. 2017; 7(8):2314-2324. (IF: 8.579)

10. The Changing Therapeutic Role of Chemo-radiotherapy for Loco-regionally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma from Two/Three-Dimensional Radiotherapy to Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy: A Network Meta-Analysis. You R#, Cao YS#, Huang PY#, Chen L#, Yang Q#, Liu YP, Zou X, Zhang YN, Jiang R, Zhang MX, Duan CY, Lin AH, Hong MH, Chen MY*. Theranostics. 2017; 7(19): 4825-4835. (IF: 8.579)

11. New surgical staging system for patients with recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma based on the AJCC/UICC rTNM classification system. You R#, Zou X#, Wang SL#, Jiang R#, Tang LQ, Zhang WD, Li L, Zhang MX, Shen GP, Guo L, Qian CN, Mai HQ, Ma J, Hong MH, Chen MY*. Eur J Cancer. 2015; 51(13):1771-9. (IF: 7.275)

12. Elevated Beclin 1 expression is correlated with HIF-1 alpha in predicting poor prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Wan XB#, Fan XJ#, Chen MY#, Xiang J, Huang PY, Guo L, Wu XY, Xu J, Long ZJ, Zhao Y, Zhou WH, Mai HQ, Liu Q, Hong MH*. Autophagy. 2010; 6(3):395-404. (IF: 9.77)

Updated April 2020 by International Office, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center