Apostolos Nakas is a Consultant Thoracic Surgeon within University Hospitals of Leicester.

He is one of the two Greek scientists in the team that have found that unstable chromosomes within lung tumours increases the risk of cancer returning after surgery, and have used this new knowledge to detect relapse long before standard testing. The other Greek scientist is Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos.

Mr Nakas was born and spent his school years in a small town in the centre of Greece, more known for the huge Meteora rocks overhanging it. He graduated from Aristotle’s University of Thessaloniki Medical School in 1992. He largely considers the medical school years the most exciting in his journey in medicine. By the end of medical school years, he knew he wanted would be a cardiothoracic surgeon.

He entered Surgical Training in January 1996 in a large Cancer Hospital in Thessaloniki. He spent nearly five years there, in General and Thoracic Surgery. He moved to London in 2000 for completion of Cardiothoracic Training. He finished off his training as a Fellow in Glenfield from 2004-2007. This was the point that his interest in Mesothelioma started and it was the beginning of a long journey which is still ongoing.

Mr Nakas was appointed as a Consultant in Glenfield General Hospital in 2007. Ever since, clinically he became almost exclusively a Thoracic Surgical Oncology surgeon.

Outside work Mr Nakas enjoys music, he scratches guitar strings, read history books and try to persuade his two children that there is life outside Minecraft and YouTube videos. His wife is his rock and her patience allows him to carry on with what he is doing.

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2 Greek scientists in the team that detected cancer relapse long before standard testing