Charu Aggarwal, MD, MPH, FASCO

faculty photo
Leslye M. Heisler Professor for Lung Cancer Excellence
Associate Director, Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation (PC3I)
Department: Medicine

Contact information
Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine
10-137, South Pavilion
3400 Civic Center Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Office: 215-662-6318
Fax: 215-349-5326
Education:
MD
Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, India, 2003.
MPH (Health Care Organization and Policy)
University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2005.
Permanent link
 
> Perelman School of Medicine   > Faculty   > Details

Description of Research Expertise

Dr. Aggarwal is the Leslye Heisler Associate Professor for Lung Cancer Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.
Dr. Aggarwal specializes in the management of patients with lung cancer, with a specific and clinical research focus on the development of personalized therapeutic approaches, and the discovery and application of biomarkers to guide treatment. She is a world-renowned expert in the application of plasma-based gene sequencing in the management of patients with metastatic lung cancer, and is actively working on implementation of comprehensive testing, and discovery of approaches focusing on early detection, detection of resistance mutations and disease monitoring.

Dr. Aggarwal serves as the Associate Director of Penn Center for Precision Medicine, and Director of Precision Medicine Innovation at the Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation (PC3I). In her roles, she is actively involved in developing, implementing, and advancing strategic and operational precision medicine initiatives with a focus on those that involve bringing new technologies or approaches to clinical care and ultimately deliver on the promise of personalized cancer therapy.

She is an active member of the Abramson Cancer Center where she serves as Physician Leader for the clinical research program for Airways Malignancies. Dr. Aggarwal performs patient-centered, scientifically relevant novel immunotherapy clinical trials that will make a tangible impact and advance our understanding of immunotherapy in patients with Lung Cancer.

Selected Publications

Voruganti T, Wang X, Davis C, Martella AO, Marmarelis ME, Aggarwal C.: Illusion of Comprehensive Testing in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Why Coverage, Sensitivity, and Reporting Matter. JCO Oncol Pract Apr 2026.

Jantus-Lewintre E, Calabuig-Fariñas S, Gandara D, Raez L, Leighl NB, Fusco N, Khorshid O, Mayo de Las Casas C, Reduzzi C, Urum Y, Aggarwal C, Serrano MJ, Rolfo C, Malapelle U.: Harmonizing definitions in liquid biopsy: A terminology framework by the international society of liquid biopsy. J Liq Biopsy 12: 100462, Mar 2026.

Barsouk A, Heidlauf A, Goel K, Rushkin L, Anran Huang A, Elghawy O, Yu C, Wang L, Yang D, Kurian M, Reed-Guy L, Sun L, Singh A, Aggarwal C, Cohen RB, Langer C, Marmarelis ME.: Osimertinib dose-reduction and survival in 1L EGFR-mutated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC). Lung Cancer March 2026.

Barber-Rotenberg JS, Haas AR, Aggarwal C, O'Hara M, Hexner E, Pequignot E, Dowd E, Ndeupen S, Thai E, Chen F, Oner BS, Czuczman C, Gonzalez VE, Fraietta JA, Hwang WT, Chew A, Jadlowsky JK, Marshall A, Shea KM, Jiang Y, Cosey A, Ferthio R, Levine BL, Plesa G, Siegel DL, Young RM, Sheppard NC, Albelda SM, June CH, Tanyi JL.: Phase 1 study of autologous T cells bearing fully human chimeric antigen receptors targeting mesothelin in mesothelin-expressing cancers. Mol Ther Jan 2026.

Aggarwal C, Ng S, Kamalakar R, Beruti S, Simmons A, Beasley MB.: A United States-Based Real-World Study on Biomarker Testing and Rebiopsy Rates Among Patients With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Across Lines of Therapy. Clin Lung Cancer Jan 2026.

Adam Barsouk, Maxim Yaskolko, Jonathan H. Sussman, Lova Sun, Roger B. Cohen, Charu Aggarwal, Corey J. Langer, Melina E. Marmarelis: Sotorasib vs adagrasib in the 2L+ setting: Outcomes in a large, multi-institutional, real-world database of KRAS-G12C mutated mNSCLC. J Clin Oncol 2026.

Phurin Areesawangkit, Adam Barsouk, Maxim Yaskolko, Lucy Wang, Cole Friedes, Roger B. Cohen, Lova Sun, Charu Aggarwal, Melina E. Marmarelis, Aditi P. Singh, Kyle W. Robinson, Christopher D'Avella, Christine A. Ciunci, Steven J. Feigenberg, Jeffrey D. Bradley, Nikhil Yegya-Raman, Michelle Iocolano, Christiana Davis, Corey J. Langer: Long-term survival outcomes of consolidative local ablative therapy after response to first-line systemic treatment in oligometastatic NSCLC. J Clin Oncol 2026.

Michelle A. Worst, Andrew Small, Amy Furedy, Charu Aggarwal, Sandip P. Patel: The impact of online CME on addressing clinical decision-making for immunotherapy in advanced squamous NSCLC. J Clin Oncol 2026.

Xavier Orcutt, Vivek Nimgaonkar, Lova Sun, Charu Aggarwal, Aaron B. Cohen, Ronac Mamtani, Qi Long, Ravi B. Parikh: Machine learning risk stratification in a US-based database to identify subgroups of patients with PD-L1-high NSCLC who benefit from adding chemotherapy to pembrolizumab. J Clin Oncol 2026.

Rachel Jaber Chehayeb, Willdragon Wang, Lova Sun, Aditi P. Singh, Roger B. Cohen, Corey J. Langer, Charu Aggarwal, Melina E. Marmarelis: Incidentally discovered lung cancer in explanted lungs at the time of lung transplantation: Management and outcomes. J Clin Oncol 2026.

back to top
Last updated: 06/03/2026
The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania