Our Staff

Kamlesh Kumar Sankhala MD (also known as Dr. Kumar by his patients and colleagues) is a Medical Oncologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, and Director of Precision NextGen Oncology and research Center, an independent center focused on treatment of complex, rare cancer and sarcomas as well as clinical research in Oncology for expedited drug development and clinical research. Precision NextGen Oncology and research Center focuses on care for patients with Advanced Cancers who are refractory to conventional treatments. We provide care to these patients with multi- institutional coordinated care and access to novel and next generation therapies with or without clinical trials. Dr. Sankhala specializes in clinical research and has pioneered a niche in treatments for patients with advanced and complex malignancies refractory to conventional treatments, along with rare cancer such as sarcomas. Dr. Sankhala received his medical degree at the University of Rajasthan, India and undertook his internal medicine residency and fellowship training in oncology at the University of Texas Health Science Center. He had two years of additional fellowship in Oncology Drug Development at the University of Texas’s Institute for Drug Development. He was a clinical faculty at the University of Texas’s Health Science Center, and Clinical Investigator at the Institute for Drug Development (IDD). He also served as team leader for the university’s Sarcoma Program. Dr. Sankhala has served as the Co-Director, Sarcoma Medical Oncology and the Director of Clinical Research and Experimental Therapeutics Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s THO. Besides his Medical Oncology practice in advanced refractory cancers, Dr. Sankhala’s research focuses on translational research of novel anti-cancer agents and on studying the pre-clinical and clinical aspects of these agents. With an esteemed background in novel drug research and phase-1 clinical trials, Dr. Sankhala has evolved into a physician devoted to the translational research of novel anti-cancer agents by applying himself to the study and evaluation of pre-clinical and clinical implications of new agents in patients with advanced cancers. He has developed a clinical proficiency in using novel anticancer drugs for patients with advanced malignancies and has optimized existing chemotherapeutic agents by reducing toxicities and increasing efficacy, thereby yielding better responses to anti-cancer therapies. Dr. Sankhala's extensive clinical research background includes serving as the principal investigator and sub-investigator in more than 250 Phase-1 and other Oncology clinical trials. Dr. Sankhala has served on advisory boards for many pharmaceutical companies to design, implicate, and conduct research on many novel oncology therapeutic molecules and has also helped several other companies to optimize and find the marketplace for novel therapies. He has also served as a member of Protocol Review and Management Committee (PRMC) and institutional review board (IRB) at Samuel Oschin Cancer Center at Cedars Sinai Cancer Institute. Dr. Sankhala has been a reviewer of reputed journals in the field of Oncology such as the British Journal of Cancer, Cancer Chemotherapy & Pharmacology, Journal of Medical Case Report, Onkologie, and Bone Marrow Transplantation. He is an editorial board member for the Journal of Cancer Science, and Therapy and Chemotherapy. Dr. Sankhala’s has authored and co-authored 71 numerous articles, and abstracts in journals including Journal of Clinical Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, Oncology immunology, Investigational New Drugs, Cancer Journal, Expert Review in Hematology, Cancer chemotherapy and Pharmacology, JAMA Oncology, Clinical Breast Cancer, Cancer Chemotherapy Pharmacology, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, Leukemia Lymphoma, Current Drug Target, Expert Opinion in Investigational Drugs, Future Oncology, Target Oncology, Expert opinion in Drug Metabolism and Toxicology, and Clinical Advancement in Hematology Oncology. He is the recipient of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Foundation’s Merit Award and the AACR- NCI scholarship for Molecular Biology in Clinical Oncology. He has presented in many major national and international meetings including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS), Japan’s Sarcoma Society, and many others. Beside Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Dr. Sankhala has affiliations with various esteemed health facilities across Los Angeles, including UCLA, USC and Providence Saint John's Health Center. Dr. Sankhala’s academic interests extend to progressive fields including Healthcare Utilization Management, Managed Care, Consumer-Directed Healthcare, Healthcare Economics, and Medical Oncology Trend Management.