Charu Aggarwal, MD, MPH

faculty photo
Leslye M. Heisler Associate Professor for Lung Cancer Excellence
Associate Director, Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation (PC3I)
Associate Director, Penn Center for Precision Medicine
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.
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Description of Research Expertise

Dr. Aggarwal is the Leslye Heisler Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Hematology-Oncology Division at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. She is an active member of the Abramson Cancer Center (ACC) where she serves as Physician Leader for the clinical research program for Airways Malignancies.

Dr. Aggarwal specializes in the management of patients with lung and head and neck cancer, with a specific and clinical research focus on the development of novel immunotherapeutic approaches, and the discovery and application of biomarkers to guide therapy and monitor treatment. She serves as the local and national principle investigator for multiple clinical trials focusing on the development of “targeted” immunotherapeutic approaches including cellular therapy and CAR-T for solid tumors. Dr. Aggarwal has led the development of a DNA plasmid based HPV specific immunotherapy for HPV associated head and neck cancers. She is actively involved in evaluating the role of plasma-based NGS in management of patients with metastatic lung cancer.

She has extensive experience in the planning, design and execution of clinical trials, is an active member of ECOG, and has served as a national sub-study chair for SWOG-NCI’s LUNG-MAP. She has served on the Annual Meeting Scientific Program Committee of American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), ASCO Education Committee, NCI- Head and Neck Metastatic Task Force Steering Committee and ACC’s Data Safety and Monitoring Committee. Dr. Aggarwal’s ultimate goal as a clinical and translational investigator is to perform patient-centered, scientifically relevant novel immunotherapy clinical trials that will make a tangible impact and advance our understanding of immunotherapy in patients with Lung and Head and Neck Cancer.

Selected Publications

Grant MJ, Aredo JV, Starrett JH, Stockhammer P, van Alderwerelt van Rosenburgh IK, Wurtz A, Piper-Valillo AJ, Piotrowska Z, Falcon C, Yu HA, Aggarwal C, Scholes D, Patil T, Nguyen C, Phadke M, Li FY, Neal J, Lemmon MA, Walther Z, Politi K, Goldberg SB.: Efficacy of osimertinib in patients with lung cancer positive for uncommon EGFR exon 19 deletion mutations. Clin Cancer Res. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-22-3497. Online ahead of print. (eds.). Page: CCR-22-3497, Mar 2023.

Marmarelis ME, Sun L, Aggarwal C. : Adjuvant Atezolizumab Should Be Administered to All Patients With Programmed Death-Ligand 1 Expressing Surgically Resected Stage II to III NSCLC After Chemotherapy: In Favor. J Thorac Oncol. 18(3): 265-267, Mar 2023 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.jtho.2022.12.004.

Aggarwal C, Leighl NB. : Next-generation ctDNA-driven clinical trials in precision immuno-oncology. J Immunother Cancer. 11(1): e006397, Jan 2023 Notes: doi: 10.1136/jitc-2022-006397.

Yegya-Raman N, Kegelman TP, Ho Lee S, Kallan MJ, Kim KN, Natarajan J, Deek MP, Zou W, O'Reilly SE, Zhang Z, Levin W, Cengel K, Kao G, Cohen RB, Sun LL, Langer CJ, Aggarwal C, Singh AP, O'Quinn R, Ky B, Apte A, Deasy J, Xiao Y, Berman AT, Jabbour SK, Feigenberg SJ. : Death without progression as an endpoint to describe cardiac radiation effects in locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Clin Transl Radiat Oncol. (eds.). 39: 100581, Jan 2023 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.ctro.2023.100581. eCollection 2023 Mar.

Kim KN, Heintz J, Yegya-Raman N, Cohen R, Kegelman T, Cengel K, Marmarelis M, Sun L, Langer C, Aggarwal C, Singh A, Singhal S, Kucharczuk J, Robinson K, Feigenberg S.: Toxicities and Deaths From Intercurrent Disease Following Contemporary Postoperative Radiotherapy in Resected Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer. Clin Lung Cancer. doi: 10.1016/j.cllc.2022.12.008. Online ahead of print. (eds.). S1525-7304(22), Dec 2022.

Aggarwal C, Saba NF, Algazi A, Sukari A, Seiwert TY, Haigentz M, Porosnicu M, Bonomi M, Boyer J, Esser MT, Cheng LI, Agrawal S, Jennings EC, Durham NM, Fraser K, Lissa D, Gong M, Ceaicovscaia N, Gasco Hernandez A, Kumar R.: Safety and Efficacy of MEDI0457 Plus Durvalumab in Patients With Human Papillomavirus-associated Recurrent/Metastatic Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Clin Cancer Res. Dec 2022 Notes: doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-22-1987.

Yeung V, Sackstein P, Grant NN, Krochmal R, Gandhi N, Aggarwal C, Halmos B, Reuss JE, Liu SV, Kim C.: Use of Erdafitinib in FGFR3-Mutated Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis. JCO Precis Oncol. 6: e2200435, Nov 2022 Notes: doi: 10.1200/PO.22.00435.

Mountzios G, Aggarwal C.: Pembrolizumab Administration Frequency, Dose Exposure, and Toxicity: Is Switching Safe? J Thorac Oncol. 17(10): 1155-1157, Oct 2022 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.jtho.2022.07.008.

Kurzrock R, Aggarwal C, Weipert C, Kiedrowski L, Riess J, Lenz HJ, Gandara D.: Prevalence of ARID1A Mutations in Cell-Free Circulating Tumor DNA in a Cohort of 71,301 Patients and Association with Driver Co-Alterations. Cancers (Basel). doi: 10.3390/cancers14174281. (eds.). 14(17): 4281, Sep 2022.

Aggarwal C, Gyawali B: Aumolertinib in EGFR-Mutant Lung Cancer: Will the Promise of Cost Disruption Ease Access? Journal of Clinical Oncology 40(27): 3103-3105, Sep 20 2022 Notes: doi: 10.1200/JCO.22.00903.

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Last updated: 03/17/2023
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