The Department of Surgical Oncology was started in St. John's in the year 2008 as a Division of Surgical Oncology by Dr. Suraj Manjunath, then an associate professor in the Department of Surgery. By 2009, with the increasing number of patients and national recognition, it obtained the status of a full fledged department. The growing clinical work prompted the Academy to set up a stand alone Cancer Centre in the St. John's campus, which now hosts all cancer related departments.

The Department has been at the forefront in providing state of the art clinical services, surgical training, and research.

The Department is a tertiary referral base and offers oncosurgical expertise for the entire range of cancers. We operate on routine as well as complex cancers amenable to surgical treatment.

St. John's is among the first private medical colleges in the country to have a superspeciality MCh training program to develop future generation oncosurgeons.

The Department associates closely with the St. John's Research Institute in doing cutting edge molecular and epidemiological research, and has more than 50 publications to its credit