Dr Shakeel Kader is the Head of Clinical Unit of General Surgery practicing at the Dr. Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Memorial Hospital in Durban, South Africa, and holds an honorary lecturer appointment at the Department of Surgery at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). He has always shown a strong interest in gastrointestinal cancers, particularly colorectal cancer. In his role as the clinical director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Group at UKZN, he is tasked with managing one of the largest ongoing colorectal cancer patient registries on the African continent. The registry was initially established by the late Professor Thandinkosi Madiba, one of the foremost experts on colorectal cancer in Africa, who also provided Kader with extensive applied research training on this topic. This experience has sharpened Kader’s research skills, leading him to develop strong research collaborations with institutions in South Africa, the USA, and the Netherlands.

Dr Kader’s ongoing research work includes studies on understanding the clinicopathological spectrum and of colorectal cancer in South African patients, the impact of HIV infection on colorectal cancer presentation, complications related to advanced colorectal cancer disease and treatment, the genetics of colorectal cancer amongst Black South Africans, and more recently, research with the scientific co-director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Group (Dr Yoshan Moodley) on determinants of non-receipt of treatment among newly diagnosed colorectal cancer patients.