Manmeet Ahluwalia, M.D., MBA, FASCO, was recently named the most published author of papers on brain metastasis in the past five years by Highly Ranked Scholars^TM. The organization honors the “most productive (number of publications) authors whose works are of profound impact (citations) and of utmost quality (h-index).” He has also published extensively in the area of glioblastoma research.

When it comes to his stellar reputation as a prolific author, Dr. Ahluwalia, deputy director, chief of medical oncology and chief scientific officer at Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute — as well as Fernandez Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Cancer Research — is humble. “It takes a village to take care of a cancer patient,” he said. “One of my favorite sayings is the African proverb, ‘When you want to go fast, you go alone. When you want to go far, you go together.’”

For Dr. Ahluwalia, it's the research and collaboration behind the papers that is really the driving force for change. And it’s that perspective that keeps him on task as he pushes the envelope, searching for breakthroughs in cancer care.

Dr. Ahluwalia was born in a small town in India and made a daily two-hour trek via bicycle, water truck and two buses to reach school. Eventually, to ensure his education, his parents sent him to live with his grandmother in New Delhi, which was the perfect solution — until she was diagnosed with cancer.

“As a naive 12-year-old, I thought I would cure cancer,” he said. “Now, I feel that every time I am helping a patient, I am giving back to my grandmother.”

Dr. Ahluwalia received his medical degree from Maulana Azad Medical College in India, and completed internal medicine training at Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, and fellowship training at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Prior to joining Miami Cancer Institute, he was with Cleveland Clinic and was the head of operations at Burkhardt Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Center. He also received an MBA from Case Western Reserve.

Throughout his career, Dr. Ahluwalia has remained focused on making an impact as a physician-scientist. “I have a builder mentality,” he explained. “At Miami Cancer Institute, my desire is to build our research and academic programs, and publishing findings from our work is enhancing our federal funding, including two R01 grants that are among the most prestigious grants from the government.”

With his builder mentality, he works directly with some of the best cancer researchers in the world. Recently, he spearheaded GATOR, a collaborative research effort through the NCI Adult Brain Tumor Consortium. Results from “A Multicenter, Phase 1, Adult Brain Tumor Consortium Trial of Oral Terameprocol for Patients with Recurrent High-grade Glioma,” was a collaboration of researchers from Miami Cancer Institute, Johns Hopkins, University of Pennsylvania, Cleveland Clinic and Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard.

Some of the recent work led by Dr. Ahluwalia and his team are:

• The LIMITLESS trial — Randomized Pivotal Study of Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) Disruption Using Exablate Model 4000 With Standard of Care (SOC) Therapy in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Brain Metastases. It is studying the benefit of using low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) therapy combined with immunotherapy.
• The LIBERATE trial — An ongoing, prospective multicenter, pivotal trial evaluating safety and technical efficacy of LIFU-based blood brain barrier disruption for increasing circulating DNA levels in blood in patients with glioblastoma to improve the diagnostic ability of the liquid biopsy.
• Quantitative Imaging Phenotype Classifier for Distinguishing Radiation Effects from Tumor Recurrence in Glioblastoma, a collaboration between Miami Cancer Institute, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cleveland Clinic and Moffitt Cancer Center.

The research being performed at Miami Cancer Institute has not only gained national visibility and credibility but is also helping in the recruitment of notable physician-scientists. “These studies and federal funding are important in our ability to grow our academic program,” Dr. Ahluwalia said. “Our experts here have a track record of publishing multiple papers with collaborators across the globe. It’s not just about a ranking on a piece of paper, though. It’s about the breadth and depth of our work and the impact we are making on the lives of patients in South Florida and far beyond. And this helps attract the best in the industry.”

Dr. Ahluwalia also co-leads the Center for Equity in Cancer Care & Research at the Institute. The Center’s mission is to identify and decrease disparities in cancer care and to improve minority participation in clinical trials. Having diverse representation in clinical trials is crucial to ensuring that medical treatments and therapies are effective and safe for all populations and helps scientists discover how different groups respond to treatment.