Dr Nathan received his first medical degree from Cambridge University and qualified in medicine at University College London, both achieved after earlier degrees (including a PhD) specialising in immunology. He carried out his post-doctoral research at the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute in the US. He initially pursued cancer research in academia and in the pharmaceutical industry before finally deciding to pursue a clinical career.
He has a specialist interest in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer) and melanoma. He is a member of the National Cancer Research Institute groups for both renal carcinoma and melanoma, chairs the rare melanoma subgroup, and is chairing the development of national guidelines for the management of ocular melanoma. He is past secretary of the UK Melanoma Study Group and is a co-author on the UK national melanoma guidelines.
He is lead investigator on many clinical trials and has an active research program. His major interests are in the use of targeted therapies to treat advanced renal carcinoma, the development of imaging biomarkers in the management of this disease, and in the development of selective treatments for genetically defined subtypes of melanoma. He has published many papers and contributed to a number of textbooks.