Dr Richard Baird

Biography

Dr. Baird is an academic medical oncologist at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Cancer Centre focused on the development of novel therapies for patients with breast cancer. He trained in Medicine at Cambridge and London Universities, before training as a medical oncologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. During this time, Dr. Baird also completed a PhD in molecular pharmacology at the Institute for Cancer Research.

In Cambridge, he has established a programme of early phase clinical trials available to patients in the East of England and beyond, including both commercial and investigator-initiated studies. He has particular research interests in phase 1-2 precision medicine trials, and the incorporation of novel biomarker endpoints (eg. ctDNA, imaging) for better treatment selection and early response assessment.

Dr. Baird is Speciality Research Lead for breast cancer clinical trials at the Cambridge Cancer Trials Centre. He is also Cambridge Director for Cancer Core Europe (CCE), a network of 7 leading cancer centres in which he leads the Clinical Trials Taskforce and is principal investigator for the Basket of Baskets trial and the H2020 EU DART grant developing better methods for cancer clinical research. He is also UK Academic lead for the Association of Cancer Physicians at the Royal College of Physicians.

Research

Dr. Baird’s research focuses on the development of new treatment strategies for patients with breast cancer, including new drug trials and also the use of new tests on tumour and blood samples to better direct therapy.

Publications

Key publications:

1) Selected original research

Camizestrant in combination with three globally approved CDK4/6 inhibitors in women with ER+, HER2- advanced breast cancer: Results from SERENA-1. Clinical Cancer Research. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-25-1198. Baird RD, et al. (2025)
Using ctDNA as a novel biomarker of efficacy for dose-finding designs in oncology. Statistical Methods in Medical Research. DOI: 10.1177/09622802251350457. Chen X, Moguzov P, Baird RD, Jaki T. (2025)
Adaptive enrichment trial designs using joint modeling of longitudinal and time-to-event data. Statistical Methods in Medical Research, DOI: 10.1177/09622802241287711. Burdon A, Baird RD, Jaki T. (2024)
A Phase 1 dose escalation and expansion trial of the next-generation oral SERD camizestrant in women with ER+, HER2- advanced breast cancer: SERENA-1 monotherapy results. Annals of Oncology, DOI: 10.1016/j.annonc.2024.04.012. Hamilton E, … Baird RD. (2024)
First-in-human Phase I study of MP0250, a First-in-class DARPIN Drug Candidate Targeting VEGF and HGF, in patients with advanced solid tumours. Journal of Clinical Oncology, DOI: 10.1200/JCO.20.00596. Baird, R. D. et al. (2020)
Circulating tumour DNA analysis to direct therapy in advanced breast cancer (plasmaMATCH): a multicentre, multicohort, phase 2a, platform trial. Lancet Oncology, DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(20)30444-7. Turner, N. C. … Baird, R. D. … Ring, A. (2020)
Support systems to guide clinical decision-making in precision oncology: The Cancer Core Europe Molecular Tumor Board Portal. Nature Medicine, DOI: 10.1038/s41591-020-0969-2. Tamborero, D. … Baird, R. D. … Lehtiö, J. (2020)
POSEIDON phase 1b results: safety, efficacy and ctDNA response of taselisib combined with tamoxifen in hormone receptor positive metastatic breast cancer patients. Clinical Cancer Research. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-19-0508. Baird, R. D. et al. … (2019)
Capivasertib Plus Paclitaxel Versus Placebo Plus Paclitaxel As First-Line Therapy for Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: The PAKT Trial. Journal of Clinical Oncology. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.19.00368. Schmid, P. … Baird, R. D. … Turner, N. C. (2019)
Enhanced detection of circulating tumor DNA by fragment size analysis. Science Translational Medicine. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aat4921. Mouliere, F. … Baird, R.D. … Rosenfeld, N. (2018)
A Bayesian adaptive design for biomarker trials with linked treatments. British Journal of Cancer. DOI: 10.1038/bjc.2015.278. Wason, J. M. S., Abraham, J. E., Baird, R. D. et al. (2015)
Antitumor Activity in RAS-Driven Tumors by Blocking AKT and MEK. Clinical Cancer Research. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-14-1901. Tolcher, A. W. … Baird, R. D. … de Bono, J. S. (2014).
First-in-Human Phase I Study of Pictilisib (GDC-0941), a Potent Pan-Class I Phosphatidylinositol-3-Kinase (PI3K) Inhibitor, in Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors. Clinical Cancer Research. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-14-0947. Sarker, D., Ang, J. E., Baird, R. D., et al. (2014)
The poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor niraparib (MK4827) in BRCA mutation carriers and patients with sporadic cancer: a phase 1 dose-escalation trial. Lancet Oncology. DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(13)70240-7. Sandhu, S. K. … Baird, R. D. … Wenham, R. M. (2013)
A Phase I Study of Quisinostat (JNJ-26481585), an Oral Hydroxamate Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor with Evidence of Target Modulation and Antitumor Activity, in Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors. Clinical Cancer Research. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-13-0312. Venugopal, B.*, Baird, R. D.* et al. (2013)

2) Selected reviews, commentaries

Mechanisms of Sensitivity and Resistance to CDK4/CDK6 Inhibitors in Hormone Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer Treatment. Drug Resistance Updates. DOI: 10.1016/j.drup.2024.101103. Glaviano A, … Baird RD … et al. (Sept 2024)
Cancer Core Europe: Leveraging Institutional Synergies to Advance Oncology Research and Care Globally. Cancer Discovery. DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-24-0377. Carmona J Baird RD et al. (June 2024)
Early Phase Clinical Trials in Oncology: Realising the Potential of Seamless Designs. European Journal of Cancer, DOI: 10.1016/j.ejca.2023.05.005. Jaki T, Burdon A, Baird RD. (2023) .
PI3K/AKT/mTOR Signaling Transduction Pathway and Targeted Therapies in Cancer. Molecular Cancer, DOI: 10.1186/s12943-023-01827-6. Glaviano A, Foo A, Lam H, Yap K … Baird RD … Fruman D & Kumar A (2023)
The Consequences for Cancer Care and Cancer Research of Brexit. Ecancermedicalscience. DOI: 10.3332/ecancer.2017.ed63. Selby, P. J., Lawler, M., Baird, R. D., Banks, I., Johnston, P., & Nurse, P. (2017)
Liquid biopsies come of age: towards implementation of circulating tumour DNA. Nature Reviews Cancer. DOI: 10.1038/nrc.2017.7. Wan, J. C. , Massie, C., Garcia-Corbacho, J., Mouliere, F., Brenton, J. , Caldas, C., Pacey, S., Baird, R. D., & Rosenfeld, N. (2017)
Clinical development of new drug–radiotherapy combinations. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology. DOI: 10.1038/nrclinonc.2016.79. Sharma, R. A., … Baird, R. D. et al. (2016)
An Association of Cancer Physicians’ strategy for improving services and outcomes for cancer patients. Ecancermedicalscience. DOI: 10.3332/ecancer.2016.608. Baird, R. D., et al. (2016)