A passion for personalized medicine and lung cancer care

As a lung cancer oncologist, Eric Singhi, M.D., often tells patients, “We don’t just treat cancer. We treat your cancer.”

So much of the cancer experience is unique to each patient: the stage, the cause, the biomarkers, the treatment, the goals. It’s what Singhi loves about oncology. It’s what drew him into the field.

“Cancer is such a universal experience,” he says. “We all know someone who has or has had cancer,” he says. “But it’s also a deeply personal experience. The actual journey is so different for each patient.”

Focusing on the person in personalized medicine

The deeply personal and specific nature of cancer pulled Singhi into oncology, and as he progressed through medical school, the very medicine he was studying began to reflect it.

In the early 2000s, researchers began to understand that lung cancer isn’t just one singular disease. It is actually a collection of molecularly distinct subtypes marked by genetic alterations, like a protein called EGFR and the gene ALK, for example. By 2004, oncologists were starting to use these genetic alterations, often referred to as biomarkers, to determine which drugs they used to treat the cancer. Targeted therapy, also called personalized medicine, was no longer experimental. It was embedded in the guidelines of clinical care.

Singhi was fascinated. Like his grandfather, who came to the U.S. as a physician, Singhi felt called to medicine. Losing loved ones to lung cancer drove him to want to treat it. He had always seen each cancer case as distinct and unique, and now doctors understood this at a molecular level and were treating it as such.

After medical school and residency, a mentor suggested that Singhi pursue a fellowship at UT MD Anderson. While many hospitals were still learning how to test for biomarkers and adopt personalized medicine for lung cancer treatment, UT MD Anderson was leading in research in detecting new lung cancer subtypes, running clinical trials using novel treatments like immunotherapy and targeted therapies, and conducting clinical trials in personalized medicine. It seemed like the perfect next step in Singhi’s career.

“At UT MD Anderson, cancer is all we do, all day, every day, and I wanted to be in that environment,” Singhi says.  

Coming to UT MD Anderson

Singhi was awestruck by the size of UT MD Anderson and how busy it was. It was the perfect match for his enthusiasm and seemingly endless energy. He developed an even deeper love for meeting with patients and their loved ones and helping them during one of the most challenging times of their lives.

“That first appointment is so important. People are grappling with the idea of having cancer and just starting to understand it. I consider it such a privilege to be with them and able to help them during that time,” he says.

Recognized for his leadership during training, Singhi was selected as Chief Fellow during his Medical Oncology fellowship before joining UT MD Anderson’s faculty in 2022.

Today, he’s a part of the very research that fascinated him in medical school, leading some of the latest clinical research in targeted therapies. In 2025, he presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology on LUNG-FAST, a pilot program he led to accelerate lung cancer diagnosis and treatment. By using pre-appointment blood tests, known as rapid liquid biopsies, to identify genomic mutations, the program enabled patients to receive biomarker results faster than historical timelines, helping more patients start the right treatment sooner.

“Cancer care has come so far,” Singhi says. “We have better treatments, smarter science and more options than ever before.”

Looking to the future of lung cancer treatment

As Singhi began his career in lung cancer, he started to see more and more patients he hadn’t expected to: people under age 50 who had never smoked. It reflected a national and international change, too. In the past, lung cancer was more common in patients closer to age 70 and often had a history of smoking. Today, almost 20% of patients diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked, and a growing number of them are what doctors call “young onset,” or under 50.

Now, along with Mara Antonoff, M.D., a lung cancer surgeon, Singhi helps lead UT MD Anderson’s Young-Onset Lung Cancer Program, which provides care for this unique population and drives research to deliver a deeper understanding and more breakthroughs in care. Singhi is the lead investigator of a registry study at UT MD Anderson dedicated to better understanding the clinical and genomic landscape of young-onset lung cancer, as well as the patient experience, an area that remains understudied.

Educating patients so they can better understand their disease remains one of Singhi’s passions. He studies how understanding improves patient experience, works closely with Patient Education and shares critical information on lung cancer on social media. Recently, he contributed to The Journey to End Cancer: From Cause to Cure, a traveling national museum exhibit on cancer sponsored by UT MD Anderson.

“Cancer care is moving toward being more precise, more human and more collaborative. It means education, trust and real partnership between patients, caregivers and care teams,” Singhi says. “Progress isn’t just about new drugs. It’s about helping patients understand their choices and to feel supported in navigating them.”

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