Lead Thoracic Surgeon
Mr Felice Granato, Consultant Thoracic Surgeon
Qualifications: MD, PhD, FRCS
Mr Granato has performed more than 5,000 thoracic surgical procedures and is the Lead Thoracic Surgeon at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT). Mr Granato also leads the robotic and minimally invasive programme for MFT thoracic surgery. He recently introduced single incision minimally thoracic surgery, and 70% of his surgical practice is carried out with approach. To date, he has performed over 1000 VATS lobectomies and 100 robotic lobectomies.
Mr Granato has contributed to streamlining patients’ pathways to improve their care and was awarded with a Clinical Excellence Award by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust in June 2019 and 2024. He is also now the Clinical Lead for thoracic surgery at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
Mr Granato has so far published 44 peer-reviewed articles and several abstracts. His research interests include thoracic oncology, minimally invasive techniques, and the application of new technology in thoracic surgery.
Mr Granato graduated in 2014 with a PhD in oncology and genetics at the University of Siena, Italy. In 2019, Mr Granato was a co-founding member of the North West Thoracic Surgical Collaborative (NWTSC). NWTSC is the largest thoracic surgical UK research collaborative and has joined Liverpool and Manchester’s research database. NWTSC’s ambition is to produce high-quality research to improve lung cancer outcomes in the region.
In December 2021, Mr Granato was appointed as responsible clinician for Wythenshawe NWTSC and Chairman of NWTSC steering committee, NCORR.
NWTSC has produced several abstracts accepted at Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery meetings from 2020 to 2024, as well as numerous original articles accepted for publication on peer reviewed journals. NWTCS aims to generate nationally and internationally validated risk-predictor models for patients undergoing lung cancer surgery.
Mr Granato is an active member of TRACERx consortium. TRACERx is a major collaboration between experts from a wide range of disciplines working together to integrate clinical, histopathological and genomic data from patients with NSCLC. Taking place over nine years and involving 842 patients from up to 20 hospitals across the UK, the study aims to define how cancer clonal heterogeneity affects the risk of recurrence and survival, and how cancer subclones compete, adapt, and evolve from diagnosis to relapse. In turn, this will define how analysis of intratumour heterogeneity can inform patient stratification and the development of novel targeted and immune based therapies. TRACERx patients, whose cancer comes back, can enter clinical trials of novel therapies (depending on test results of their tissue samples) from which they could benefit.
Mr Granato contributes to several ongoing national trials: Achilles ATX-TBL-001: collection of donor tissue/blood from patients with malignancy to enable development of Neo-Antigen Reactive T-Cell therapies – co-investigator (CI). Topic2: RCT to investigate the effectiveness of Thoracic Epidural/Paravertebral Blockade in reducing chronic post-thoracotomy pain – CI. Harp2: Multicentre RCT- prevention of postoperative complications by using HMG-CoA Reductase Inhibitor in patients undergoing one lung ventilation – CI. Tracer X: tracking NSCLC evolution through therapy – CI.
Mr Granato also contributed to 100,000 Genomes Project. It aims to use whole genome sequencing (WGS) to identify novel driver mutations for cancer, and to understand its evolutionary genetic architecture through primary and secondary malignant disease; partner stratified healthcare programmes and outcome studies with patients from the NHS in England to enable understanding of WGS benefits in defining predictors of therapeutic response to cancer therapies; to utilise WGS to identify new pathways for cancer therapies.
Mr Granato is conscious of the fact that the lung cancer resection rate in the UK is below the European average, and he constantly strives to increase this percentage through improving surgical techniques, enhancing postoperative recovery, optimising patient pathways, and exploring new sources of referral. He is part of a team of like-minded colleagues dedicated to achieving world-class results both at clinical and academic level.
Training
Mr Granato graduated in medicine with honours at the University of Naples, Italy, in 2005, and specialised in thoracic surgery at the University of Siena, Italy in 2010. He has worked in the United Kingdom since October 2010 when he fully registered on the GMC specialist register for cardiothoracic surgery. Mr Granato was recognised with Fellowship of Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) of London in 2013. He graduated with a PhD in oncology and genetics in 2015 at University of Siena, Italy. He has worked as a Consultant Thoracic Surgeon in the United Kingdom since April 2014 and at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, as a permanent consultant, since February 2017. Mr Granato was appointed as Clinical Lead of the Thoracic Surgical Unit in 2022.