Atif Jalees Khan, MD, MS
Radiation Oncologist
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Areas of Expertise
My Specialties
- Radiation Therapy for Early and Advanced Breast Cancer, Primary and Secondary Brain Tumors
- Stereotactic Cranial and Extracranial Radiotherapy
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About Me
- Chief, External Beam Radiotherapy: MSK Basking Ridge and MSK Monmouth
- Director, Breast Radiotherapy Services
I am a radiation oncologist who specializes in caring for people with breast cancer, brain tumors, and soft tissue sarcomas. I am experienced in using advanced treatment techniques, such as stereotactic radiation therapy. My experience allows me to offer the people I care for a plan that best suits their diagnosis and treatment goals.
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Receiving a cancer diagnosis complicates the lives of people with cancer and their caregivers in many unanticipated ways. I experienced this firsthand when my mother was treated for breast cancer. I remember how much my parents valued the time that doctors took to explain things as my parents navigated the unfamiliar world of hospitals and treatment centers. My experience with my family influences how I care for people with cancer. I feel privileged to be a part of their lives.
Radiation oncology is in the middle of a technology revolution. We are creating new tools and techniques that can deliver treatment at a precise level we never could have imagined before. We have also come a long way in understanding the biology of various cancers. All of this means that many people with cancer have better outcomes with fewer side effects. I’m excited to be a part of this progress as a member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) team. MSK combines cutting-edge treatment and research with a history of excellence like no other.
My research focuses on bringing new treatment approaches from bench to bedside to improve cancer care, particularly for breast and brain tumors. Many of the studies I am currently leading are national and multi-institutional. These trials will fundamentally affect how we treat and think about breast cancer.
I am currently involved in an MSK trial studying (19-300) accelerated partial breast radiation in women with breast cancer. In this trial, we are testing the safety and effectiveness of a shortened approach where we give radiation therapy (RT) to part of the breast across three visits. Women who are not in a study usually receive RT to the whole breast over three weeks or partial breast irradiation over a five- to 10-day period.
In a separate trial at MSK (20-513), we are studying whether we can safely and effectively give RT across five visits instead of 16 to 25 visits in people who have had a mastectomy for early breast cancer with chest wall reconstruction.
Other research that I am involved in focuses on people with metastatic breast cancer. One trial is exploring whether RT can make immunotherapy work better in women whose disease has spread to other parts of the body. We are especially interested to see if RT makes immunotherapy more effective in people who are not thought to be good candidates for immunotherapy or whose disease has started to grow on immunotherapy (MSK trial 20-505). Please contact my office for additional details on these trials.
Outside of MSK, I am the current Chair of the breast section of the oral exam for radiation oncology through the American Board of Radiology. All residency graduates take this exam as part of their certification process. I also serve on other national-level committees that help guide research in breast cancer.
A radiation oncologist is a cancer doctor with special training in using radiation therapy (RT) to treat cancer with radiation.
My Specialties
- Radiation Therapy for Early and Advanced Breast Cancer, Primary and Secondary Brain Tumors
- Stereotactic Cranial and Extracranial Radiotherapy
Education
- MS, Radiological Sciences, Rush University - The Graduate College
- MS, Clinical & Translational Science, Rutgers Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
- MD, Aga Khan University Medical College
Residencies
- Rush University Medical Center
Fellowships
- Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School
Board Certifications
- Radiation Oncology
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Contact and Location
Dr. Khan sees patients at two locations.
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Colleagues
Doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering work as teams, with specialists from all different areas. This allows us to consider all your needs together, and to give you the best possible care.
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Clinical Trials
- Clinical Trials Investigated by Dr. Khan
- A Phase II Study of Radiation Therapy with Pembrolizumab Immunotherapy and Olaparib in Women with Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
- A Phase II Study of Three-Day Partial Breast Radiation Therapy in Women with Breast Cancer
- A Study Assessing a Shortened Radiation Therapy Schedule in People Who Had a Mastectomy for Early Breast Cancer
- A Study Assessing the Addition of Pembrolizumab Immunotherapy and Radiation Therapy to Standard Chemotherapy Before Surgery in People with Breast Cancer
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- A Study of Radiation Therapy to Treat Solid Tumors That Spread to Soft Tissue
- Clinical Trials Co-Investigated by Dr. Khan
- A Study Assessing the Addition of Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy to Standard Drug Therapy in People with Breast Cancer
- A Study Assessing the Need for Regional Radiation Therapy in Women with Low-Risk Breast Cancer
- A Study of Presurgical Radiotherapy, Then Mastectomy, Then Immediate Breast Reconstruction in Women with T4 Breast Cancer
Memorial Sloan Kettering's doctors and scientists are constantly developing new treatments for cancer. MSK is typically running hundreds of clinical trials at a given time.
You may be able to participate in a clinical trial even if you are new to MSK. Search our online directory to find trial information and see more about who can participate.
Search clinical trialsResearch and Publications
View a full list of Dr. Khan’s publications.
Khan AJ, Mehta PS, Zusag TW, Bonomi PD , Faber LP, Abrams RA. (2006). Long term disease-free survival resulting from combined modality management of patients presenting with oligometastic, non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSLCL). Radiother Oncol, 81(2),163-7.
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Khan AJ, Vicini FA, Brown S, Haffty BG, Kearney T, Dale R, Lyden M, and Arthur D. (2013) Dosimetric Feasibility and Acute Toxicity in a Prospective Trial of Ultra-short Course Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation (APBI) using a Multi-Lumen Balloon Brachytherapy Device. Ann Surg Oncol. 20(4):1295-301.
Dr. Khan’s Contribution to Science:
As a post-doctoral associate at Yale University School of Medicine, I worked on a translational project evaluating outcomes after breast conserving therapy in women with BRCA mutation-associated breast cancer. In this study, we collected specimens from women with breast cancer who were diagnosed at a young age and compared outcomes between women with wild-type disease and women with BRCA-mutant disease. We looked at endpoints of ipsilateral and contralateral breast cancer, as well as distant control and survival. I shared co-authorship when this seminal work was published in Lancet.
Haffty BG, Harrold E, Khan A, Pathare P, Ward BA, Matloff E, Alvarez-Franco M, Bale AE. (2002). Conservatively Managed Breast Cancer in Young Women: Outcome as a Function of BRCA 1/2 Status. Lancet, 27;359(9316),1471-7.
In a translational project that I led, and for which I personally performed experiments, we reported for the first time that treating irradiated cells with riluzole, a glutamate release inhibitor, increased cell death and DNA double strand breaks.
The publication was followed by three additional papers that continued to build on this work in different models, including a model of brain metastasis and gliomas. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) awarded a patent for this use, and the drug is being developed for clinical use by Biohaven (trigriluzole, Biohaven New Haven CT); as a result, it may affect patient care in the near term.
A phase 1 trial of the drug in patients with melanoma brain metastases has activated at Dana Farber, with multiple participating institutions. As a result, my work has directly translated to a patient-centered clinical trial.
Khan AJ, Wall B, Ahlawat S, Green C, Schiff D, Mehnert JM, Goydos JS, Chen S, Haffty BG. Riluzole enhances ionizing radiation-induced cytotoxicity in human melanoma cells that ectopically express metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 in vitro and in vivo. Clin Cancer Res. 2011 Apr 1;17(7):1807-14. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-10-1276. Epub 2011 Feb 15. PMID: 21325066; PMCID: PMC3070864.
Wall BA, Wangari-Talbot J, Shin SS, Schiff D, Sierra J, Yu LJ, Khan A, Haffty B, Goydos JS, Chen S. Disruption of GRM1-mediated signalling using riluzole results in DNA damage in melanoma cells. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res. 2014 Mar;27(2):263-74. doi: 10.1111/pcmr.12207. Epub 2014 Jan 22. PMID: 24330389; PMCID: PMC3947419
Wall BA, Yu LJ, Khan A, Haffty B, Goydos JS, Chen S. Riluzole is a radio-sensitizing agent in an in vivo model of brain metastasis derived from GRM1 expressing human melanoma cells. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res. 2015 Jan;28(1):105-9. doi: 10.1111/pcmr.12327. Epub 2014 Nov 28. PMID: 25363352; PMCID: PMC5661976.
Khan AJ, LaCava S, Mehta M, Schiff D, Thandoni A, Jhawar S, Danish S, Haffty BG, Chen S. The glutamate release inhibitor riluzole increases DNA damage and enhances cytotoxicity in human glioma cells, in vitro and in vivo. Oncotarget. 2019 Apr 19;10(29):2824-2834. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.26854. PMID: 31073373; PMCID: PMC6497458.
Level I evidence supports the use of shorter, or hypofractionated, breast radiotherapy schedules in diverse cohorts of people with breast cancer. However, the implications of these shorter schedules when adopted on a national scale were unknown. We investigated wide-scale adoption of shorter radiotherapy schedules in a Markov model and demonstrated that adoption of these shorter schedules in countries with limited radiotherapy resources can actually improve breast cancer-survival and other endpoints by improving access to therapy when a backlog of demand exists.
Relatedly, I have been the Principal Investigator (PI) of three investigator-initiated trials examining shorter novel courses of breast radiotherapy, two of which were multi-institutional. The most significant of these was recently reported and serves as the basis for a national randomized trial of hypofractionated postmatectomy radiation therapy (PMRT) vs conventional PMRT (Alliance 221505), for which I am one of the PIs.
Khan AJ, Rafique R, Zafar W, Shah C, Haffty BG, Vicini F, Jamshed A, Zhao Y. Nation-Scale Adoption of Shorter Breast Radiation Therapy Schedules Can Increase Survival in Resource Constrained Economies: Results From a Markov Chain Analysis. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2017 Feb 1;97(2):287-295. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2016.10.002. Epub 2016 Oct 11. PMID: 27986343.
Khan AJ, Poppe MM, Goyal S, Kokeny KE, Kearney T, Kirstein L, Toppmeyer D, Moore DF, Chen C, Gaffney DK, Haffty BG. Hypofractionated Postmastectomy Radiation Therapy Is Safe and Effective: First Results From a Prospective Phase II Trial. J Clin Oncol. 2017 Jun 20;35(18):2037-2043. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2016.70.7158. Epub 2017 May 1. PMID: 28459606; PMCID: PMC5476174.
Khan AJ, Chen PY, Yashar C, Poppe MM, Li L, Abou Yehia Z, Vicini FA, Moore D, Dale R, Arthur D, Shah C, Haffty BG, Kuske R. Three-Fraction Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation (APBI) Delivered With Brachytherapy Applicators Is Feasible and Safe: First Results From the TRIUMPH-T Trial. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2019 May 1;104(1):67-74. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2018.12.050. Epub 2019 Jan 4. PMID: 30611839; PMCID: PMC7373303.
There are now a several agents that can inhibit DNA damage repair. However, the rationale for therapeutic ratio (tumor cells to normal cells) is stronger for some of these agents than for others. Specifically for DNA-protein kinase (PK) inhibition, a major regulator of non-homologous end joining, the rationale is not clear. We attempted to demonstrate therapeutic ratio and to begin understanding the basis for it.
Khan AJ, Misenko SM, Thandoni A, Schiff D, Jhawar SR, Bunting SF, Haffty BG. VX-984 is a selective inhibitor of non-homologous end joining, with possible preferential activity in transformed cells. Oncotarget. 2018 May 25;9(40):25833-25841. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.25383. PMID: 29899825; PMCID: PMC5995231.
Visit PubMed for a full listing of Dr. Khan’s journal articles. Pubmed is an online index of research papers and other articles from the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.
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Disclosures
Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.
MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.
Atif Jalees Khan discloses the following relationships and financial interests:
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Biohaven Pharmaceuticals
Intellectual Property Rights -
Exact Sciences Corporation
Professional Services and Activities
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Xtrava
Equity
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The information published here is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.
This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2022 through disclosure submission in spring 2023). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.
Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].
