Fingleton, Barbara

Biography

Barbara Fingleton Ph.D. is a tenured Associate Professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Surgery in the School of Medicine in Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. She has been running an independent research lab for the past 10 years and has trained multiple PhD students and post-docs. Dr. Fingleton earned her Ph.D. in Dublin, Ireland before moving to Nashville for post-doctoral training and her subsequent faculty position. Dr. Fingleton’s research program is centered around finding targets to thwart metastatic disease in solid tumors. She has served on the editorial boards for the AACR journals Cancer Research and Clinical Cancer Research, serves on study sections for NIH and DOD and is currently the Secretary of the Board of the Metastasis Research Society.

Forde, Patrick

Biography

Dr. Forde is co-director of the division of upper aerodigestive malignancies and director of the thoracic oncology research program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. He has led the development of immune checkpoint blockade for resectable cancers culminating in the recent FDA approval of neoadjuvant immuno-chemotherapy for stage 1-3 lung cancer, this approval was based on his 2018 and 2022 publications in the New England Journal of Medicine. He leads several international phase 1-3 clinical trials including the phase 3 DREAM3R trial of immuno-chemotherapy for mesothelioma - this study builds on his 2021 publication in Nature Medicine reporting the longest survival to date for patients with unresectable mesothelioma. Dr. Forde is principal investigator for the Johns Hopkins Immunobiology Biorepository and has published widely on molecular and immunologic correlates of response and resistance to immunotherapy for cancer including key co-authored publications in Nature, Nature Cancer and Cancer Discovery among >100 peer-reviewed manuscripts

Hanna, George

Biography

Professor George Hanna is head of the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College and Consultant Upper Gastro-intestinal surgeon at Imperial College NHS Trust. Professor Hanna leads NIHR programme for point of care diagnostics in cancer and gastrointestinal diseases (NIHR London IVD). The current interests of his laboratory revolve around volatile organic compounds analysis for biomarker discovery and understanding the molecular drivers of volatile compounds in an attempt to develop non-invasive breath test to detect gastrointestinal cancers. His surgical research aims to develop competency assessment tools for training and quality assurance of surgical performance in randomised controlled trials.

Jain, Suneil

Biography

Professor Jain is a Full Professor at Queens University Belfast and Consultant Clinical Oncologist at the Northern Ireland Cancer Centre. His PhD was in the use of gold nanoparticles as sensitisers for radiation therapy, his international fellowship was carried out at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto. He is an expert in advanced radiotherapy and systemic therapies for the treatment of localised and advanced prostate cancer. Professor Jain leads multiple clinical trials in Northern Ireland; his research interests include radiomic and genomic biomarkers to improve risk stratification in prostate cancer, the utilisation of nanotechnology to enhance the effects of radiation therapy, stereotactic radiotherapy and brachytherapy in high-risk prostate cancer and drug-radiotherapy combination studies in early metastatic disease.

He has been instrumental in introducing innovative healthcare to Northern Ireland including: transperineal prostate biopsies, high dose rate brachytherapy, gold fiducial makers, peri-rectal spacer gels and stereotactic radiotherapy for prostate cancer and oligometastases.

He is Chief Investigator of the SABRE study, a global phase III RCT investigating the use of SpaceOAR Vue in patients treated with stereotactic radiotherapy for prostate cancer. He is clinical lead for the PACE NODES trial which compares prostate only SBRT to prostate and nodal SBRT in high risk localised prostate cancer. This study will run at 25 UK and Irish cancer sites.

He is Co-Director of the Belfast-Manchester Movember/PCUK Prostate Cancer Centre of Excellence, a member of the NCRI Localised Prostate Cancer Clinical Research Group, a member of the ASCO Genitourinary Guidelines Advisory Group and past-Chair of the Irish Radiation Research Society.

Lagergren, Pernilla

Biography

Pernilla Lagergren is professor of Surgical Care Sciences at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and at Imperial College London, United Kingdom. Professor Lagergren is a registered nurse and holds a PhD in surgery. Professor Lagergren leads a multidisciplinary research group at Karolinska Institutet. At Imperial College London she is chairing the Healthcare Professional Academic Group (HPAG). Her main research area is cancer survivorship in patients with cancer of the upper gastrointestinal tract, with a focus on health-related quality of life and other patient-reported outcomes in patients who undergo surgery for oesophageal cancer. She is an elected member of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences (EACS) where she is involved in the Academy’s work on cancer survivorship.

Lawler, Mark

Biography

Prof Mark Lawler (Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Professor of Digital Health, and Chair in Translational Cancer Genomics, Queen's University Belfast) is an internationally renowned scientist whose work has been recognised by numerous national/international awards. He is Scientific Director of DATA-CAN, the UK’s National Health Data Research Hub for Cancer and Chair of the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership, an international collaborative employing data-driven approaches to improve outcomes for cancer patients. He is passionate about the use of data to provide the intelligence that underpins better care for our patients.

Mark has a strong commitment to patient-centred research and care and to addressing cancer inequalities. He was architect of the European Cancer Patient's Bill of Rights, launched in the European Parliament on World Cancer Day 2014. The Bill of Rights received The 2018 European Health Award, a prestigious award for partnerships that yield real health impact in Europe. Mark’s work on addressing inequalities formed the centrepiece in the development by the European Cancer Organisation (E.C.O) of the European Code of Cancer Practice, co-created by patients and health professionals, and launched (virtually) with EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides in Brussels. Mark is a member of the Board of E.C.O and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Cancer Patient Coalition.

Mark’s work on Covid-19 and its impact on cancer services and cancer patients has received international acclaim. He co-chairs E.C.O’s Special Focussed Network on Covid-19 and cancer, which launched its 7-Point plan to Build Back Smarter from Covid. He presented data on Covid’s impact on cancer in Europe to the Europe Beating Cancer Committee in the European Parliament and launched E.C.O’s pan European Time To Act Campaign to ensure that Covid-19 does not stop us from tackling cancer. This work received the prestigious Royal College of Physicians Excellence in Patient Care Award.

In 2021, Mark received the Irish Association for Cancer Research’s Outstanding Contribution to cancer research award, for his pioneering work on cancer research and cancer care on the island of Ireland. In 2022, he was elected to Fellowship of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences /p>

Letai, Anthony

Dr Anthony Letai graduated from Princeton University with and A.B. in Physics, then received his MD and PhD at the University of Chicago, completing clinical training in Hematology and Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. After a post-doctoral fellowship with Stanley Korsmeyer, since 2004 Dr. Letai has run a laboratory at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to study how apoptosis can be evaded by cancer cells. Key to these studies is a novel assay - BH3 profiling. He has led efforts to translate BCL-2, BCL-XL, and MCL-1 antagonists into the clinic. These include venetoclax, a BCL-2 antagonist approved by the FDA for CLL and AML and now being tested across nearly all blood cancers, in combination with other drugs and with immune-oncology agents. The laboratory is also testing whether BH3 profiling can be used as a broad predictive biomarker to assign clinical cancer therapy. In an attempt to unite others across the world who also pursue ex-vivo functional testing, in 2018, he founded the Society of Functional Precision Medicine, and serves as its President. He is a recipient of the European Cell Death Organization Career Award, the Smith Family Prize for Outstanding Scientific Contributions and the National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award.

Meattini, Icro

Biography

Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Biomedical Sciences “M. Serio” of the University of Florence (Florence, Italy), Icro Meattini works as Clinical Oncologist since 2011 at the Radiation Oncology Unit of the Oncology Department at the Florence University Hospital, where is responsible for the Outpatient Clinics Unit, Clinical Trials Unit, and leader of the Clinical Oncology Group of the Breast Cancer Multidisciplinary Team. Active member of the European Society for Radiation Oncology (ESTRO), the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), and the Italian Association of Radiotherapy and Clinical Oncology (AIRO). He is actively involved in ESTRO and EORTC network, currently he is member of the Steering Committee of the EORTC Breast Cancer Group (BCG) and of the Radiation Oncology Scientific Council (ROSC), Chair of the Breast Cancer Group of AIRO and Chair of the Clinical Oncology Breast Cancer Group (COBCG) cooperative network. Authors of over 185 peer-reviewed international papers and PI/co-PI of several phase 2-3 trials, his main fields of interest are breast cancer, multimodal treatments, oligometastatic disease, health-related quality of life, cardiac prevention toxicity, hypofractionation, partial breast irradiation, clinical trials research.

Piaggio, Elaine

Biography

Dr. E. Piaggio obtained the diploma of clinical biologist and the PhD in Immunology at the National University of Rosario, Argentine. She did her post-doctoral studies in France and actually is research director of INSERM. She directs the "Translational Immunotherapy team” at Institut Curie, in Paris. Her team is part of the first French Center for Cancer Immunotherapy. Her main contributions have been in the field of regulatory T-cell based immunotherapy of infectious diseases (Chagas' disease), autoimmunity (type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis/EAE), alloreactivity (GVHD and transplantation) and more recently, cancer. Her team is interested in the development of novel immunotherapies, translatable to patients. She is co-founder of Egle-Therapeutics, a biotech developing Treg-based immunotherapies.

Oberst, Simon

Bibliography

Simon Oberst is Director of Quality and Accreditation, Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI). He was until recently Director of Clinical Development, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre; and concurrently Chair of the Accreditation and Designation Board of the OECI.

Simon is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, and a specialist in quality systems and organisational development in cancer. After graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge, he worked in the London and Newcastle with KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. After spells in industry and charities, he moved to being Director of Improving Cancer Services with the UK’s leading cancer patient charity, Macmillan Cancer Support.

As Director of Clinical Development for the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre for 10 years, Simon Oberst was working with University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospital leaders on plans to deliver a state of the art 25,000 M2 Cancer Research Hospital on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The vision is to integrate teams of clinicians, biologists, mathematicians, physicists, chemists and engineers to develop innovative care pathways that diagnose cancer early and treat patients personally and precisely.

As chair of the Accreditation Board of OECI since 2015 he has overseen the accreditation of 50 of the leading Cancer Centres in Europe, as well as establishing consensus quality standards for cancer centres, and networks. He has been a key author on subjects such as: bridging research and clinical care – the comprehensive cancer centre. As Director of Quality and Accreditation for OECI, Simon will direct the quality and accreditation programmes as these grow within and outside Europe, and enable OECI’s involvement with some of the EU Actions in cancer arising from Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and Horizon Europe.

OBrien, Catherine

Biography

Catherine has been working in Cancer Care since qualifying in Cork University Hospital in 1993. She spent some time in University Hospital London and St Vincent’s Hospital Dublin before coming to St James’s Hospital in 2001. In 2002 she completed a 3 month clinical trials module in the National Cancer Institute in Washington DC. Following completion of her Masters in Clinical Practice (UCD) in 2010, Catherine had a secondment to Memorial Sloane Kettering in New York which evoked her keen interest in cancer survivorship. She completed her Advanced Practice Certificate (UCD) in 2017 and took up position as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner(ANP) in Cancer Survivorship in St James’s Hospital in the same year. The role involves providing a nurse-led service to patients with Lymphoma, Breast and Testicular cancers following the completion of their treatment in dedicated cancer survivorship clinics. Catherine has a keen interest in nursing research and has led on a number of local and International studies.

OReilly, Seamus

Biography

Prof O’Reilly graduated from the National University of Ireland (Galway) (BSc 1985, MB BCh BAO 1988, MD 1997) and completed basic specialist training in Trinity College Dublin (MRCPI 1991) and higher specialist training in Medical Oncology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and completed a PhD in Clinical Investigation at Johns Hopkins University where he was Assistant Professor of Medicine focusing on Phase I Drug Development. He was a Principal Investigator in the Gynecologic Oncology Group and on return to Ireland established Cancer Clinical Trials units in Waterford and Cork allowing patient participation in pivotal breast cancer trials such as RespondX, PALLAS, SOLE, and HERA. He is currently Consultant Medical Oncologist at Cork University Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine at University College Cork. In 2020 was appointed Vice Clinical Lead of Cancer Trials Ireland and elected to the Executive Board of the Breast International Group in 2021. He is a member of the National Research Ethics Committee, the Advisory Council of the National Cancer Registry and the Early Drugs Taskforce of the Breast International Group.

From 2013-2021 he was National Specialty Director in Medical Oncology at the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland and has co-developed an online multidisciplinary course in Cancer Medicine for General Practice with University College Cork. In 2021 he organised the first National Cancer Retreat and has instigated a National Green Cancer Clinical Trials Initiative with Cancer Trials Ireland. He is founding editor of the journal Cancer Professional. In the community, he is a founding trustee of Cork ARC Cancer Support House, a cofounder of the South Eastern Cancer Foundation, and has led and developed nurse education and financial hardship patient funds at CUH Charity, and the CUH-India appeal for Unicef in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In society, he has spoken at the European Parliament about the impact of the pandemic on patients and healthcare workers.

He has over 100 peer reviewed publications related to cancer therapeutics. Ongoing research projects at the present time include secondary prevention assessment in breast cancer survivors, the impact of expanded access programs in Oncology, cybersecurity and cancer care and the impact of litigation on breast cancer care in Ireland.

Ryll, Bettina

Bibliography

Dr Bettina Ryll is the current chair of the ESMO Patient Advocates Working Group (PAWG).

Dr. Ryll holds a medical degree from the Free University of Berlin, Germany and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from University College London, UK. After losing her husband to melanoma, she founded the Melanoma Patient Network Europe and developed a special interest in patient-centric clinical research, in particular, innovative trial designs and novel drug development concepts, such as MAPPS (medicines' adaptive pathways to patients), previously known as Adaptive Licensing. Lately, her focus has moved to sustainable healthcare models ensuring access to innovative therapies for cancer patients and incentives for sustainable innovation.

Dr. Ryll is involved in numerous initiatives promoting evidence-based advocacy. She is fascinated by the enormous potential and capacity of patient networks to both educate and support patients as well as to capture data at the primary data source – the patients themselves – and to generate evidence at a granular level non-accessible to outsiders.

Since 2015, Dr. Ryll has chaired the ESMO Patient Advocates Working Group, the first time this position has been held by a non-oncologist. The PAWG is responsible for the Patient Advocacy Track at the annual ESMO meeting, organises workshops of interest to the wider advocacy and medical community and has an advisory function for ESMO activities.

She has also been member of the ESMO Quality of Care Task Force since 2015.

Stadler, Zsofia

Biography

Dr Stadler is Clinic Director of the Clinical Genetics Service with a primary appointment in Clinical Genetics and a secondary appointment in the Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She completed her medical training at Cornell University followed by internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and medical oncology fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where her research focused on clinical cancer genetics and hereditary cancer syndromes. Dr. Stadler joined MSKCC in 2008, where she is now an Associate Attending Physician and is also appointed as an Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Her clinical focus is on the diagnosis, treatment, and management of patients and families with an inherited genetic predisposition to cancer. Her research interests focus on the identification of new cancer susceptibility genes through the use of genomic technologies and the development of novel approaches to cancer screening and prevention in high-risk families. She serves as co-PI of MSK’s tumor-normal IMPACT sequencing (12-245 PI: D. Solit) protocol overseeing the germline sequencing aspects of the study. She has been the PI of numerous projects with funding from the National Institute of Health, Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, Cycle for Survival, Marks Foundation, Starr Cancer Consortium, and the Romeo Milio Lynch Syndrome Foundation. She is also Associate Director of the Precision Interception and Prevention Program at MSKCC. She has published and lectured internationally on cancer genetic syndromes and has served as Co-Chair of the Genetics and Genomics Committee of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).