Charles Swanton

Charles Swanton has transformed the understanding of cancer evolution through the TRACERx study, the largest and most detailed longitudinal analysis of tumor evolution in non-small cell lung cancer, which has revealed the rules governing tumor diversification, clonal selection under therapy, and immune evasion evolution through chromosomal instability and HLA loss of heterozygosity. His discovery that air pollution promotes lung cancer through an inflammation-mediated mechanism rather than direct mutagenesis has redefined understanding of environmental carcinogenesis. His work at the Francis Crick Institute has established the evidence base for evolutionary-informed cancer medicine.