Biography
Medical Oncology consultant physician with extensive experience in drug development, early phase and experimental medicine clinical trials. Simon has led academic and commercial studies as Principal Investigator or Chief Investigator both nationally and internationally.
Simon was appointed in 2011 and holds a PhD in Molecular Pharmacology (Institute of Cancer Research, University of London) and completed his Medical Oncology training with rotations including St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Royal Marsden Hospital Drug Development Unit.
Current responsibilities include being the Speciality Research Lead for Cambridge Early Phase Oncology trials team and member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Cambridge Clinical Research Centre and Cambridge Clinical Trials Unit.
In addition, Simon holds roles leading postgraduate medical training. These include Academic Training Lead (Department of Oncology), Training Programme Director, Medical Oncology (Health Education East of England) and Deputy Director, Clinical PhD students (Cambridge Academic Training Office)
Simon has two broad themes for his research program:
- Early/ localised Prostate Cancer drug development where he leads a program including “window” of opportunity trials that investigate the effects of novel drug treatments. Most recently as CI for ASCERTAIN (NCT05938270) or Oncology lead for TAPS02 (NCT05191680). The clinical trial portfolio are part of a close collaboration with the Dev group (Early Cancer Institute, Cambridge) including developing assays for detection of ctDNA and models of Prostate Cancer. This work is funded by grants that include support from Prostate Cancer Foundation/ John Black charitable trust and Astra Zeneca Partners of Choice.
- First in Human (Phase 1) clinical trials with a broad portfolio of novel systemic therapy leading 32 studies to date providing access to novel therapy options for patients.
Research
I lead clinical trials to develop new treatments for patients with cancer.
I specialise in the early clinical trials done as potential treatment moves from the laboratory into patients for the first time.
Part of my research is to design and lead clinical trials aiming to improve our understanding of how a treatment might work, or not. For example, I work with colleagues and patients to run studies looking at the effects of new treatments for men with early-stage prostate cancer – called “window” studies. These are named because participants agree to take novel drug(s) before surgery to remove their prostate cancer. By taking part patients provide us with samples that allow the detailed study human Prostate Cancer samples. We use the results of these studies to suggest better ways to treat men with Prostate Cancer in the future.
