{"entity":{"id":"kapoor-akhil","kind":"person","name":"Akhil Kapoor","aka":[],"tldr":"First author of METRO PLUS, the Varanasi trial that doubled survival in advanced head and neck cancer by adding cheap oral metronomic drugs to standard chemotherapy.","summary":"Akhil Kapoor is a medical oncologist at Tata Memorial Centre's Varanasi hospitals and first author of METRO PLUS (JCO Global Oncology 2026), a randomised trial of 238 patients with advanced unresectable head and neck cancer in which paclitaxel-carboplatin plus oral metronomic chemotherapy gave a median overall survival of 10 months against 5 months with chemotherapy alone (hazard ratio 0.54). His work continues the Tata Memorial tradition of trials designed for the drugs and budgets available to most of the world's patients.","asOf":"2026-09-10","links":[{"label":"Tata Memorial Centre","url":"https://tmc.gov.in"},{"label":"PubMed author search","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Kapoor%20A%5BAuthor%5D%20Varanasi%20head%20and%20neck%20metronomic"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["head-and-neck"],"sections":[],"technologies":["cytotoxic-chemotherapy"],"targets":[],"drugs":["paclitaxel","carboplatin","methotrexate"],"companies":[],"institutions":["homi-bhabha-cancer-hospital-varanasi","tata-memorial"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":["metro-plus-varanasi"],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Medical oncologist, Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and MPMMCC, Varanasi (Tata Memorial Centre)","institutionId":"homi-bhabha-cancer-hospital-varanasi","specialisms":["Head and neck cancer","Metronomic chemotherapy","Pragmatic trials","Global oncology"],"profiles":[{"label":"Tata Memorial Centre","url":"https://tmc.gov.in"},{"label":"PubMed author search","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Kapoor%20A%5BAuthor%5D%20Varanasi%20head%20and%20neck%20metronomic"}],"papers":[{"title":"Integrating metronomic therapy with standard chemotherapy in advanced unresectable head and neck cancer: a randomized trial addressing global cancer care equity (METRO PLUS)","journal":"JCO Global Oncology","year":2026,"doi":"10.1200/GO-25-00721"}],"orcid":"0000-0001-6006-2631"},"route":"/people/kapoor-akhil/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"head-and-neck","kind":"cancer","name":"Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/head-and-neck/"}],"technology":[{"id":"cytotoxic-chemotherapy","kind":"technology","name":"Cytotoxic chemotherapy","route":"/technologies/cytotoxic-chemotherapy/"}],"drug":[{"id":"carboplatin","kind":"drug","name":"Carboplatin","route":"/drugs/carboplatin/"},{"id":"methotrexate","kind":"drug","name":"Methotrexate","route":"/drugs/methotrexate/"},{"id":"paclitaxel","kind":"drug","name":"Paclitaxel / nab-paclitaxel","route":"/drugs/paclitaxel/"}],"institution":[{"id":"homi-bhabha-cancer-hospital-varanasi","kind":"institution","name":"Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Cancer Centre, Varanasi","route":"/institutions/homi-bhabha-cancer-hospital-varanasi/"},{"id":"tata-memorial","kind":"institution","name":"Tata Memorial Centre","route":"/institutions/tata-memorial/"}],"trial":[{"id":"metro-plus-varanasi","kind":"trial","name":"METRO PLUS (Tata Memorial Centre, Varanasi)","route":"/trials/metro-plus-varanasi/"}]}}