Rate My Professor Kevin Cheung

Kevin J. Cheung, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Public Health Sciences Division and an Affiliate Investigator in the Human Biology Division at Fred Hutch Cancer Center. He also serves as Associate Professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Washington and as an attending physician at Fred Hutch and the University of Washington Medical Center. In the field of biology, Dr. Cheung is a physician-scientist whose research centers on the origins and vulnerabilities of breast cancer metastasis, particularly collective metastasis—the dissemination of tumor cell clusters to distant organs. He earned a B.A. from Harvard College in 2001 and an M.D. from Weill Cornell Medical College in 2006, followed by an internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2009 and a medical oncology fellowship at Johns Hopkins in 2015.

The Cheung Lab employs 3D tumor organoids, time-lapse imaging, and in vivo animal models to elucidate the physical and biochemical interactions driving tumor cell cooperation, migration, signaling, and therapy resistance. Notable publications include "Polyclonal breast cancer metastases arise from collective dissemination of keratin 14-expressing tumor cell clusters" (PNAS, 2016), "A collective route to metastasis: Seeding by tumor cell clusters" (Science, 2016), "Regulation of Collective Metastasis by Nanolumenal Signaling" (Cell, 2020), "Metastasis from the tumor interior and necrotic core formation are regulated by breast cancer-derived angiopoietin-like 7" (PNAS, 2023), and "Collective migration modes in development, tissue repair and cancer" (Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, 2025). Dr. Cheung has garnered major awards, including the Department of Defense Era of Hope Scholar Award ($4.1 million, 2018), Susan G. Komen Career Catalyst Research Grant (2018), Kuni Foundation grant (2023), Kleberg Foundation grant ($1 million, 2024), and Department of Defense Breakthrough Award ($2 million, 2025). His work advances understanding of metastatic processes to inform more effective treatments and prevention for breast cancer.