As a surgeon-scientist, my overall goal is to improve our ability cure the most aggressive head and neck cancers while also abating treatment toxicity for ones readily curable by existing therapies. My lab's work has pursued how multiple discrete subpopulations of malignant cells within these tumors cooperatively resist therapy via both tumor cell autonomous mechanisms and crosstalk with the stromal microenvironment. In the process, we have developed the ability to analyze heterogeneity and phenotypic plasticity within cancer cell lines, patient-derived xenografts, and primary human cancer samples based on molecular and functional criteria. My group seeks precise molecular definition of the epigenetic plasticity that promotes homeostasis of tumor cells that retain malignant potential in the face of standard therapy. Our studies integrate known drug resistance mechanisms into a conceptual framework where oncogenic signal dependence is regulated by flux between distinct cell states. Our work demonstrates that activation of oncogenic signaling pathways is remarkably heterogeneous and plastic within any single tumor. As a result, rapid compensation to targeting these pathways occurs not only at the level of signaling networks in individual cells but also through dynamics among diverse cell states cooperatively sustaining cancer progression. We are presently exploiting such intra-tumor diversity as a basis to improve the marginal efficacy of current targeted agents in head and neck cancer therapy with new drug combinations.
I see patients at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and have over a decade of experience in managing the most complex head and neck cancer cases as an oncologic and reconstructive surgeon. As part of a multidisciplinary team, I am dedicated to optimizing survival for aggressive head and neck cancer cases while managing readily curable ones with the goal of minimizing negative effects of treatment. My NIH-funded research enterprise brings a cutting edge molecular perspective to surgical cancer care while optimizing use of tumors that I remove from patients to advance the science of cancer therapy. I use open, endoscopic, robotic, and laser procedures to treat both benign and malignant disorders of the mouth, throat, larynx, nose, sinuses, salivary glands, parapharyngeal space, and skin. I am also highly experienced in surgical management of thyroid and parathyroid diseases.
Cancer clinical trials
Squamous cell carcinomas
HPV-related cancer
Oral cancer
Throat cancer
Larynx (voice box) cancer
Transoral laser surgery
Transoral robotic surgery
Salivary cancers
Nasal cancers
Sinus cancers
Skin cancers
Thyroid cancers
Parathyroid cancers
Basal cell carcinomas
Melanomas
Sentinel lymph node mapping
Head and neck sarcomas
Benign salivary tumors
Benign tumors of the head and neck
Paragangliomas
Parapharyngeal space tumors
Carotid body tumors
Nerve sheath tumors
Congenital cysts of the head and neck
Surgery for vocal cord paralysis
Endoscopic sinus surgery
Head and neck trauma surgery
Selected Publications
Sannigrahi MK, Raghav L, Rich DJ, Schrank TP, Califano JA, Lukens JN, Sun L, Morgan IM, Cohen RB, Lin A, Liu X, Brown EJ, You J, Mirabello L, Mishra SK, Shimunov D, Brody RM, Pearson AT, Gimotty PA, Diab A, Jalaly JB, Basu D.: Tumor-intrinsic and immune-related features associated with treatment failure in HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer. JNCI((epub)), March 2025.
Sannigrahi MK, Raghav L, Diab A, Basu D.: The imprint of viral oncoproteins on the variable clinical behavior among human papilloma virus-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas. Tumour Virus Res. 18, Dec 2024.
James CD, Otoa1 RO, Youssef AH, Fontan CT, Sannigrahi MK, Windle B, Basu D, Morgan IM: HPV16 genome structure analysis in oropharyngeal cancer PDXs identifies tumors with integrated and episomal genomes. Tumor Virus Res(epub), June 2024.
Sannigrahi M, Cao AC, Rajagopalan R, Sun L, Brody RM, Raghav L, Gimotty PA, Basu D: A novel pipeline for prioritizing cancer type-specific therapeutic vulnerabilities using DepMap identifies PAK2 as a target in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. Molecular Oncology 18(2): 336-339, February 2024.
Sannigrahi MK, Rajagopalan P, Lai L, Liu X, Sahu V, Nakagawa H, Jalaly JB, Brody RM, Morgan IM, Windle BE, Wang X, Gimotty PA, Kelly DP, White EA, Basu D: HPV E6 regulates therapy responses in oropharyngeal cancer by repressing the PGC-1alpha/ERRalpha axis. JCI Insight 7(18), September 2022.
Brody RM, Shimunov D, Cohen RB, Lukens JN, Hartner L, Aggarwal C, Duvvuri U, Montone KT, Jalaly J, LiVolsi VA, Carey RM, Shanti RM, Rajasekaran K, Chalian AA, Rassekh H, Cannady SB, Newman JG, Basu D: A benchmark for oncologic outcomes and model for lethal recurrence risk
after transoral robotic resection of HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers. Oral Oncology 127, April 2022.
Hatterschide J, Castagnino P, Kim HW, Sperry SM, Montone KT, Basu D, White EA: YAP1 activation by human papillomavirus E7 promotes basal cell identity in squamous epithelia. eLife 11: e75466, February 2022.
Facompre ND, Rajagopalan P, Sahu V, Pearson AT, Montone KT, James CD, Gleber-Netto FO, Weinstein GS, Jalaly J, Lin A, Rustgi AK, Nakagawa H, Califano JA, Pickering CR, White EA, Windle BE, Morgan IM, Cohen RB, Gimotty PA, Basu D. : Identifying predictors of HPV-related head and neck squamous cell carcinoma progression and survival through patient-derived models. Int J Cancer 147(11), December 2020.
Harmeyer KM, Facompre ND, Herlyn M, Basu D: JARID1 Histone Demethylases: Emerging Targets in Cancer. Trends Cancer 3(10): 713-725, Oct 2017.
Facompre ND, Harmeyer KM, Sole X, Kabraji S, Belden Z, Sahu V, Whelan K, Tanaka K, Weinstein GS, Montone KT, Roesch A, Gimotty PA, Herlyn M, Rustgi AK, Nakagawa H, Ramaswamy S, Basu D: JARID1B Enables Transit between Distinct States of the Stem-like Cell Population in Oral Cancers. Cancer Res 76(18): 5538-49, Sep 2016.
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Last updated: 04/08/2025
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