Dr Shivan Sivakumar is a research active oncologist with an interest in improving the survival of patients with pancreatic cancer through finding better opportunities to diagnose the disease earlier, running clinical trials and informing new targets by studying the biology of the disease. He also treats patients with pancreatic cancer, liver cancer and biliary tract cancer and has an active trials programme in this area.

He undertook medical training at Barts and the London School of Medicine and undertook his foundation training in Leeds. He was a clinical research fellow at St John’s College, University of Cambridge where he read for a PhD in Biochemistry. His completed general medical training in Wales and Leeds and was then appointed a clinical lecturer at the University of Oxford where he conducted translational research whilst completing his oncology training. He was then appointed as a clinical career development fellow at the University of Oxford and an honorary consultant in medical oncology. In August 2023, he was recruited to the University of Birmingham as an associate professor to develop an academic translational programme in the HPB oncology unit, which is one of the largest units in Europe. 

He has a national reputation in the field of pancreatic cancer, biliary tract cancer and liver cancer. He has won prestigious national awards including the NCRI future of research award and the Royal College of Physicians Linacre Lecture. He has won numerous grants and regularly publishes in the world’s top journals. He also has set up a large trials practice with the first two trials he has opened in Birmingham, being the first to open in Europe. He has been the UK chief investigator on numerous studies.