Expert Perspectives in Colorectal Cancer Care - video series 1

Richard Wilson is the Professor of Gastrointestinal Oncology in the University of Glasgow and an Honorary Consultant in the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre. He works as a medical oncologist in experimental cancer medicine and in lower gastrointestinal cancer (mainly in colorectal cancer but also in small bowel cancer and peritoneal malignancies) and conducts biological, translational and clinical research in these diseases. He has been Chief Investigator on many local, national and international cancer clinical trials in both early and late phase settings and has published over 100 peer reviewed manuscripts. He is passionate about improving outcomes for GI cancer patients through cancer research and in training the next generation of cancer researchers and clinicians.

Dr Rao is a Consultant Medical Oncologist specialising in gastrointestinal cancers and cancers of unknown primary within the Gastrointestinal Unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital. Dr Rao completed medical training at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School and specialist oncology training at The Royal Marsden. She undertook laboratory-based research at The Institute of Cancer Research, supported by an academic grant, examining the prognostic and predictive value of genomic profiling of tumour biopsies in oesophago-gastric cancer. She is The Royal Marsden's lead for cancers of unknown primary. Her research interests include clinical trials with novel therapies in GI cancers and she is the Principal investigator on a number of national and international trials with novel agents and immunotherapy. She serves on the committees for the UK National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Colorectal Cancer and Anal-Rectal Clinical Study Groups and is an active member of the International Rare Cancers Initiative (IRCI). She serves on the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) educational faculty for GI Tumours. She sits on a number of national and international trial management groups and data monitoring committees.

Dr Paul Ross is a Consultant Medical Oncologist at Guy’s & St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospitals. He specialises in HPB and colorectal cancers. He has served on national groups including: NCRI Upper GI Cancers Clinical Studies group, its hepato-biliary sub-group; NCRI CRC adjuvant & advanced disease group; NHSEs Chemotherapy Clinical Reference group; Association of Cancer Physicians. His research interests are focussed around pharmacogenomics, interventional oncology and clinical trials. Paul trained at the Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute of Cancer Research. His Research was awarded the Association of Cancer Physicians McElwain prize and an American Society of Clinical Oncology Merit award.

Dr Janet Graham completed a PhD at Imperial College London before taking up a post as Consultant Medical Oncologist at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, based in Glasgow. She is the Gastrointestinal team lead and Clinical Lead for the West of Scotland Colorectal Cancer Managed Clinical Network. As a Senior NRS Research Fellow her main focus is on trying to maximise opportunities for oesophago-gastric, pancreatic and colorectal patients to take part in clinical trials. Nationally Janet was Chair of the Adjuvant and Advanced Subgroup of the NCRI Colorectal Group until recently and also advises other groups such as bowel cancer UK, NICE and SMC.
 

Professor Mark Saunders, MBBS, MRCP, FRCR, PhD, received his medical degree from Charing Cross Hospital, London, UK, in 1986 and followed this with further training at teaching hospitals in London. He spent 5 years working in general medicine before specialising in oncology, first at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford and later at The Christie in Manchester. During his time as an Imperial Cancer Research Fund Fellow at the Churchill Hospital, Dr Saunders gained a Medical Research Council (MRC) grant to fund work that led to his PhD, entitled “The application of gene therapy to selectively enhance tumour cell kill by bioreductive drugs”, which he completed in 1999. He was the recipient of the Karol Sicher Research Fellowship, awarded by the UK Royal College of Radiologists, which allowed him to spend 3 months working with Professor Ralph Weichselbaum at the University of Chicago. He was made a consultant at The Christie in 1999. His main area of interest is running all phases of chemotherapy and radiotherapy clinical trials evaluating novel agents with associated response / toxicity biomarkers and radiology (colorectal cancer, anal cancer, and pseudomyxoma). He has written a series of protocols for clinical trials that have been funded, completed and published. He also chairs or is a member of a number of Trial Management Groups (TMGs) and Data Monitoring Committees (DMCs). He is the joint-Chair of the medical advisory board of Bowel Cancer UK.

Andrew Beggs is a Professor of Cancer Genetics & Surgery in the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, University of Birmingham. He is also the Deputy Director of the Birmingham Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre and Theme Lead for Biomarkers and Liquid Biopsy.  He also is Head of Somatic Cancer in the Central and South Genomic Medicine Service Alliance. He is Co-Lead of the Translational Biology and Genetics research theme within the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences. He is a fellow of the Alan Turing Institute and has recently been awarded an MRC Senior Clinical Fellowship. Currently funded by multiple industrial partners as well as the MRC, BBSRC, Sarcoma UK and Cancer Research UK, Andrew’s lab research encompasses organoid models of cancer, cancer biology and omics technologies in medicine. He is also a Consultant Colorectal & General Surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham with specialist interest in laparoscopic (keyhole) cancer surgery and familial cancer syndromes, which he runs as part of a national service. He is also an honorary consultant surgeon at Birmingham Childrens and Women's Hospitals. His major research interests include solid tumour cancer biology and translational medicine. He has published articles in Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Genetics, the BMJ, The Lancet, Gut, Journal of Pathology and PLoS Genetics. He collaborated in writing the European consensus guidelines for the management of Peutz-Jeghers syndrome.