My current role
My current clinical practice is in precision diagnostics, risk – based management of prostate cancer and personalised surveillance of early cancer. I have introduced practice changing innovations which have standardised patient care and significantly reduced rates of over-treatment. More recently, with colleagues from the TPCG, I have established a platform for integrated genomics and clinical profiling (opens in a new tab) to explore the potential for targeted adjuvant therapies to improve primary cure rates in poor prognosis prostate cancer.
In the University of Cambridge, I lead the Division of Urology in the Department of Surgery and established the Cambridge Urology Translational Research and Clinical Trials office which has to date recruited >1600 patients to various NIHR and portfolio urology trials. I am clinical directorate lead for urology research. I hold patents, editorial positions and have won prizes for research, including the CE Alken prize, Urological Research Society Medal and a Hunterian Professorship. In the University of Cambridge, I am a recipient of the Vice-Chancellors Award for Research Impact (Established Researcher). I am also a Visiting Professor at Anglia Ruskin University.
My previous history
I graduated from Newcastle University and following basic surgical training, was a recipient of a CRUK PhD studentship and subsequently the first surgeon to be awarded a CRUK Clinician Scientist Fellowship.
My research has covered the full spectrum of basic science, translational, clinical and epidemiological disciplines in prostate cancer. My laboratory work as group leader led to novel discoveries into the pivotal role of endogenous signalling regulators (SEF/SPRED) in prostate cancer and mechanistic insights into growth factor signalling in disease progression and treatment resistance. In recent years my work has focused increasingly on the translational/clinical interface and the application of research findings into clinical practice.
I have developed and implemented novel prognostic prediction models for both group stratified cohorts Cambridge Prognostic Groups (opens in a new tab) and for individualised prediction Predict Prostate (opens in a new tab) for personalised management of prostate cancer. These models have been shown to outperform current guideline endorsed risk models and have been adopted into local and regional guidelines. Predict prostate is the only decision aid endorsed by the UK NICE National Guidelines (opens in a new tab) on prostate cancer. I have pioneered risk stratified pathways for active surveillance follow up and setup one of the first dedicated surveillance clinics for early disease monitoring. I have developed and led numerous investigator led multicentre clinical trials including TAPS01 (opens in a new tab), Predict Prostate RCT (opens in a new tab), PRIM biomarker study (opens in a new tab), and the NIHRi4i funded CAMPROBE (opens in a new tab) study (based on his own invention of a new simple device for infection free prostate biopsies).
My work has been cited in prostate cancer guidelines by NICE and the European Association of Urology. To further interdisciplinary research in prostate cancer he established the Translational Prostate Cancer Group (TPCG) in Cambridge with colleagues from urology, oncology, radiology, pathology and basic science. The TPCG have so far collaborated on >60 peer reviewed papers with a combined grant income of >£6M. I have also established links with STEM scientists to develop biosensors for cancer detection across different platforms. I am also Chief Investigator of the DIAMOND study which hold over 3000 bio-samples, tissue and annotated clinical data for biomarker discovery in urological diseases (to date used in over 50 research studies).
Membership / accreditations
I am a member of the UK ICGC prostate group and on the clinical steering committee of the International Pan Prostate Cancer Collaborative. I am a founder member of the International GAP3 Active Surveillance consortium. To date I have raised over £7M in personal research funding covering basic, translational and clinical trials research, over £5M as co-investigator and published over 170 peer reviewed papers. I am also a joint applicant on research collaboratives that have secured over £70M in funding.