Abhay Singh, MD, MPH
Cleveland Clinic

NCIS                                        

The North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society congratulates Abhay Singh, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, as the 2023 recipient of NANETS Clinical Investigator Scholarship (NCIS). Dr. Singh was awarded this scholarship for his proposal: A Study of the Evolution of Radio Peptide and Cytotoxic Therapy-related Hematopoietic Molecular Signatures and Role in Predicting Resultant Hematological Toxicity.

Dr. Singh’s goal is to accelerate our understanding regarding radio-ligand therapies and associated hematological toxicities, and implement these discoveries into clinical care for NET patients. Since joining Cleveland Clinic in August 2021, he has built a robust clinical and research practice focused on the care of cancer survivors at risk for developing myeloid neoplasms (MN). He plans to further build multi-disciplinary collaborations to study radioligands, toxicities and associations with clonal-hematopoiesis-of-indeterminate-potential (CHIP). CHIP is a mutational signature observed in the blood and bone marrow that increases risk for subsequent hematological-toxicity.

Dr. Renuka Iyer, his mentor, is a nationally known expert in NET and director of NET BioBank. Dr. Singh became interested in neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) during his first rotation as a first-year hematology-oncology fellow at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2018. Under Dr. Renuka Iyer’s leadership, Roswell Park was one of the first centers to offer the novel treatment of peptide-receptor-radionuclide-therapy (PRRT).

After completing his fellowship in 2021, he joined the leukemia faculty at the Cleveland Clinic (CCF) where there is one of the nation’s very few CHIP clinics. At CCF, he is the head of the CHIP/CCUS clinic and serves as the principal-investigator on the 10-year CHIP study. In addition, he serves as a guide to major cancer centers to help initiate their ‘CHIP/CCUS clinic.’

Dr. Singh hypothesizes that CHIP augmentation/evolutionary trajectories can be traced while on TEM and PRRT and these will be distinct to each exposure. Deeper investigation into the clinical utility of monitoring CHIP lesions to predict the risk of hematological toxicity is an unmet need for our NET patients.

NANETS is pleased to support Dr. Singh’s work on this research proposal. The NCIS award is a two-year, $100,000 grant made possible by NANETS. The NANETS Scientific Review & Research Committee establishes the award criteria, reviews process, and independently selects the recipient.