Dr Tan Min-Han specializes in clinical cancer genetics and precision oncology. As a cancer specialist trained in both clinical cancer genetics and medical oncology, he advises physicians and patients on integrating genetics with cancer management. He also provides specialist genetic counseling at his clinic, for either risk assessment or drug selection.
Dr Tan’s work has spanned diverse fields of cancer treatment, laboratory genetics, nanomedicine and medical data analytics to regularly rewrite orthodoxy and improve patient care. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed original papers spanning breast, lung, gastrointestinal, liver, prostate, kidney and head and neck cancers. For his contributions in enhancing patient care, he has received international research awards from professional societies in the USA and Europe (ASCO and ESMO), as well as regional awards for excellence from ASEAN.
Among his work, he is internationally recognized for discovering the circulating tumor-endothelial cluster in the blood of cancer patients, as a non-invasive marker of cancer. Having filed multiple patents in the fields of liquid biopsies and companion diagnostics, his service laboratory focuses on enhanced blood testing technology to achieve faster and more accurate cancer testing and monitoring. The enhanced liquid biopsy technology at Lucence for screening and monitoring of cancer is available to all physicians, particularly for lung, nose/nasopharyngeal and gastrointestinal cancers. His research on cancer drug side effects is also widely recognized, being the first investigator to develop a human stem cell model for drug-induced liver damage.
As a cancer geneticist, he is noted for establishing international diagnostic criteria and lifetime cancer risks for Cowden syndrome, a hereditary breast cancer syndrome, together with Prof Charis Eng at the Cleveland Clinic. He sees patients for cancer risk assessment, continuing to collaborate across the public and private sectors to identify new genes in the Asian population. He led the analysis of the Singapore Breast Cancer Screening Programme, involving over 160,000 women followed up over 20 years, comprehensively analyzing risk factors.
He remains active in public service, and is co-chairman of the Ministry of Health Genetics Testing Advisory Committee. He was lead editor of the Singapore Cancer Network, developing national cancer management guidelines between 2014 and 2016.
MBBS
FRCP Edin
FAMS
PhD