Professional background
Mr Karl Payne is a Maxillofacial Head & Neck Surgeon specialising in cancer of the mouth, face, salivary glands and neck. Karl completed a medical degree at Nottingham University followed by a dental degree at King’s College London. He completed surgical training in the West Midlands, during which time he achieved a PhD in Cancer Genomics from the University of Birmingham. Following this Karl completed a fellowship at University College London Hospital before starting as a Consultant. He specialises in oral cancer surgical treatment and complex microvascular reconstruction.
He is an Honorary Associate Professor at the University College London Head and Neck Academic Centre and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In addition, Karl is Academic Lead for the UK Oral & Maxillofacial Surgical training RCS Specialty Advisory Committee and Subject Editor for the British Journal of Cancer Reports. Karl has written several books, one of which is the seminal text for maxillofacial surgery junior trainees nationwide. In addition, he has published extensively and holds research grants from multiple charity funders. Karl’s research interest focuses on investigating head & neck cancer biomarkers, such as DNA or cancer cells, detected in blood samples and how these relate to metastasis.
Specialties
Research interests
- Head & neck cancer
- Blood liquid biopsy biomarkers
- Lymph node metastasis
- Surgical education and training
Publications
- A Systematic Review of Prognostic Factors and Anatomical Variability in Surgically Managed T4b Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Implications for Future Classification
- M Abukhder, M S Hassan, O. Mubarak, K. Payne, A. Sahovaler, C. Schilling. Br J Oral Maxillofac Surg 2026;64(1):5-13
- Current Evidence and future directions in the surveillance of HPV-Positive oropharyngeal carcinoma.
- Iocca, O, Campo F, Schilling C, Payne K, Di Maio P. Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy (2025)
- Lymphatic mapping Of Oropharyngeal Cancer (LOOC): protocol for a phase II surgical imaging trial to evaluate contralateral drainage and occult metastasis in oropharyngeal cancer
- Schilling C, Payne K, Wan S, et al. BMJ Open. 2025 Jun 5;15(6)
- The impact of elective cervical lymph node treatment on the tumour immune response in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: time for a change in treatment strategy?
- Payne K, Nenclares P, Schilling C. BJC reports 2024; 2:68
- Payne K, Suriyanarayanan H, Brooks J, Mehanna H, Nankivell P, Gendoo D. Exploring the impact of intra-tumoural heterogeneity on liquid biopsy cell-free DNA methylation and copy number in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Oral Oncol. 2024; 158:107011
- Payne K, Brotherwood P, Suriyanarayanan H, Brooks J, Batis N, et al. Circulating tumour DNA detects somatic variants contributing to spatial and temporal intra-tumoural heterogeneity in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Frontiers in Oncology. 2024; 14: 23 April
- Turton N, Aggarwal A, Twohig E, Gallagher J, McVeigh K, Barnard N, Payne K. Integra Dermal Regeneration Template in Complex Scalp Reconstruction. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2024; 13(5): 1511
- Payne K, Brooks J, Batis N, Khan N, El-Asrag M, et al. Feasibility of mass cytometry proteomic characterisation of circulating tumour cells in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma for deep phenotyping. British Journal of Cancer. 2023; 126: 1590-98
- Payne K, Higginson J, Basyuni S, Goodson A, Chadha A, et al. Academic Training in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery – when and how to enter the pathway. Br J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2023; 61(2): 124-130
- Payne K, Taylor G, Brooks J, Batis N, Nankivell P, Mehanna H. Circulating tumour cells demonstrate an epithelial-mesenchymal transition profile independent of tumour status in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Head & Neck. 2022; 44(11):2545-2554