Prof. Kevin J. Harrington FRCP FRCR FRSB PhD
Professor in Biological Cancer Therapies
Kevin Harrington is an NIHR Senior Investigator and Head of the Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)/Royal Marsden Hospital (RMH). He is the RMH/ICR NIHR Biomedical Research Centre lead for the Targeted Physical Therapies theme, Director for the ICR/RM CRUK RadNet Centre of Excellence, Chair of the CRUK Advanced Radiotherapy Network (ART-NET) Network Accelerator, Chair of the ICR Wellcome Trust Clinical Training Programme and an Executive Board member for the CRUK ICR/Imperial Major Centre for Convergence Science. He is also an Honorary Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and at St George’s Hospital, specialising in developing new treatments with a specific focus on head and neck cancer (HNC).
His research interests include immunotherapy, targeted radiation sensitisers and oncolytic virotherapy. In the field of immunotherapy for cancer, he has been involved in the development of immune checkpoint inhibitors (PD-1, PD-L1, CTLA-4, TIGIT, CD47 inhibitors) and innate immune activators (eg cyclic dinucleotide (CDN) and non-CDN STING agonists). He serves on Steering Committees and Scientific Advisory Boards that have guided the development of trials of immune checkpoint inhibitors in head and neck cancer (including Keynote-040, -048, -412, -689, CheckMate-141, -651, 714, Kestrel, Javelin-100). He has been Principal Investigator of multiple phase I, II and III studies of novel agents in HNC. He leads a programme of pre-clinical and clinical research in targeted radiosensitisers (Chk1i, HSP90i, ATRi), including the first-in-man phase I PATRIOT study of the ATR inhibitor, AZD6738. This work focuses largely on the potential immunological effects of combinations of DNA damage response inhibition and radiation. In oncolytic virotherapy, he has led in developing DNA (HSV [talimogene laherparepvec, RP1, RP2 and RP3 viruses] and vaccinia virus) and RNA viruses (Reovirus type 3 Dearing, coxsackievirus A21, Maraba and Newcastle Disease virus).
His expertise has been recognized in membership of multiple national and international practice-defining guideline committees: British Association of Head and Neck Oncology (BAHNO), UK National Multidisciplinary guidelines (2011, 2015); Chair, UK Head and Neck Mucosal Melanoma Group (2018-2020); International Nasopharynx Cancer guidelines (2018, 2019, 2020); Human Intratumoural Immunotherapy (HIT-IT) (2018); Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) HNC guidelines (2019); Intratumoural RECIST Guideline Group (2019-2020); ASTRO/ESTRO guideline group to define risk-adapted radiotherapy in COVID patients with HNC (2020); founding Steering Committee member of the ESMO Co-CARE Registry (2020); SITC Intratumoural Therapy Expert Panel (2022).
He received the 2019 BAHNO President’s Achievement Award and was the 2021 Semon Lecturer (Royal Society of Medicine).
Prof. Harrington has published >570 peer-reviewed publications and >50 book chapters. He was listed as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in 2021 and 2022.
Dr Justin Roe
Dr Justin Roe is a Consultant and Professional Lead for Speech and Language Therapy at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London. He is also the Clinical Service Lead for the Complex Laryngology Service/ National Centre for Airway Reconstruction at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. He is an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London.
Justin was awarded a PhD in 2013 from the Institute of Cancer Research in London He is now actively involved in a number of Cancer Research UK and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) portfolio studies. He is the survivorship theme lead for the International Centre for Recurrent Head and Neck Cancer (IReC) delivered by the Royal Marsden.
Justin has contributed to key policy and position papers and is an expert adviser to several national organisations. He is a Council Member for the British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists and the British Laryngological Association. He was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists in 2018 and an MBE in the 2022 Queen’s New Year Honours in recognition of his contribution to the profession.
Dr Patrick Gullane
Dr Patrick Gullane was born in Ireland and received his medical degree from NUI-Galway, Ireland. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada and certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. In 1975 he was selected as the McLaughlin Fellow and then pursued advanced Fellowship training in Head and Neck Oncology in Pittsburgh, and New York.
In 1978, Dr Gullane was appointed to the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He was subsequently recruited in 1983 to the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Toronto. He currently holds the Wharton Chair in Head and Neck Surgery at the University Health Network and University of Toronto. In 1989 he was appointed as Otolaryngologist-in-Chief within the University Health Network and in 2002 appointed as Professor and Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Toronto.
Dr Gullane is a member of numerous Surgical Societies, nationally/internationally and has been invited as a Visiting Professor to over 65 countries lecturing on all aspects of Head and Neck Oncology. He has delivered over 635 invited and Keynote presentations nationally/internationally including the Eugene Myers International lecture in September 2006, received the 2007 Medtronic Alumni Award from the National University of Ireland (Galway) for contributions to Health Care and Medical Science, delivered the Sir Peter Freyer Memorial lecture to the Irish Surgical Forum NUI-Galway in 2009, the John J. Conley lecture to the American Head and Neck Society in 2012, the 87th Abraham Colles lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in February 2012, the Hayes Martin lecture at the 5th World Congress of IFHNOS and annual meeting of the Head and Neck Society in New York in July 2014 and the Gunnar Holmgren Lecture to the Swedish Society of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery April 2018. He was one of the six International Faculty leaders who conducted the IFHNOS Head and Neck World Tour Program in 2008.
Dr Gullane has published 368 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 98 chapters in textbooks. In addition he has published 10 books on various aspects of Head and Neck Surgery. He has served as President of the American Head & Neck Society, The North American Skull Base Society, President of the Canadian Society of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Vice President of the Triological Society. In recognition of his distinguished achievements, Professor Gullane was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2006, Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2010 and an Honorary Fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland in 2012.
He was elected to Fellowship in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2011 and in 2010 was appointed as a Member to the Order of Canada by the Governor General of Canada, Cited for his inspiration of young surgeons and his contributions to the field of Head and Neck Surgery. In 2014, in recognition of his outstanding contributions an endowed Chair was named in his honour at the University Health Network/University of Toronto.
In February 2015, Dr Gullane was appointed as a Member to the Order of Ontario by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario for his achievements in the field of Head and Neck Surgery. In June 2022 he was awarded an Hon. Doctorate from Western University, London, Ontario. Finally, he has facilitated the establishment of Six University-Hospital Chairs: Head & Neck Surgery, Reconstruction, Radiation Oncology, and Basic Science, from private funding donations in excess of $19.5 M., with continual funding up to the present time.
Davide Lombardi, MD FACS
Dr Lombardi qualified from the School of Medicine, University of Brescia, in 1999, and obtained his specialization in Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, in 2003. His current position is full-time Consultant at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head
and Neck Surgery, University of Brescia, Italy. His main areas of interest are thyroid surgery, salivary gland surgery, and sinonasal Surgery. He serves as a reviewer for multiple journals, including “Head and Neck”, “Oral Oncology”, “European Archives of Otorhinolaryngology and Head & Neck”, “Laryngoscope”, “Clinical Otolaryngology”, “Rhinology”, “Thyroid”, “Tumori”, and is an Editorial Board member of “Frontiers in Surgery”.
He has authored Peer-reviewed papers in indexed journals and 14 Book Chapters. He is Treasurer of the MULTISCIPLINARY SALIVARY GLAND SOCIETY (MSGS), and is a member of the AMERICAN HEAD AND NECK SOCIETY (AHNS), the INTERNATIONAL NEURO-MONITORING STUDY GROUP (INMG), The AMERICAN THYROID ASSOCIATION (ATA), The ENDOCRINE TUMOR GROUP OF EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION FOR RESEARCH AND TREATMENT OF CANCER (EORTC), and is an ASSOCIATE FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS (ACS)
Dr. Snehal G. Patel
Dr. Snehal G. Patel is an Attending Surgeon in the Head and Neck Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Professor of Otolaryngology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York.
He is an internationally renowned expert in the multidisciplinary treatment of complex tumors of the head and neck area and is especially interested in minimally invasive image-guided treatment approaches.
Dr. Patel has a special interest in developing new technology and approaches for the treatment of patients with head and neck cancer. The overall goal of his research is to improve outcomes of treatment, patient satisfaction and post-therapy quality of life. He is working to achieve this goal based on a multi-pronged research program that includes development of new technology for in vivo imaging and minimally invasive treatment of tumors, evaluation of patient expectations and development of novel patient education techniques, development of statistical methods for predicting individualized outcomes, and assessment of quality of care, post-therapy patient satisfaction and quality of life. He holds several US patents for novel technology and methods for imaging and surgical applications of his research efforts. His research has been funded by competitive peer-reviewed intra and extramural grants. He is a member of several national and international societies and serves on scientific committees including the American Joint Committee on Cancer Head and Neck Staging Task Force. His clinical research has resulted in over 300 peer-reviewed scientific publications in addition to numerous book chapters and three textbooks on head and neck cancer.
Dr. Hilda E. Stambuk
Dr. Hilda E. Stambuk is an Attending Neuroradiologist and Professor of Radiology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York.
Dr. Stambuk has been on the staff of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center since 2000 where she is currently the Director of Head and Neck Radiology. She has a special interest in head and neck oncology and has particular expertise in CT-guided biopsy of head and neck tumors. Her research interests include investigation of advanced imaging methods and multimodality nanoparticle imaging for the diagnosis and treatment of head and neck tumors.
Dr. Stambuk is an experienced and avid educator who has written numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on imaging of head and neck tumors and is also a contributing editor to the best-selling surgical textbook Jatin Shah’s Atlas of Head and Neck Surgery and Oncology. She serves on the Editorial Board of the journal Head and Neck and has been a reviewer for several journals. She has received teaching awards at MSKCC. She is a nationally and internationally recognized lecturer and is involved in print and web-based educational projects including StatDx for radiologists.
Dr Martin Forster
Dr Forster is an Associate Professor at University College London (UCL) and Consultant Medical Oncologist at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
He specialises in Thoracic and Head and Neck Cancers and has a particular interest in drug development, running a broad portfolio of studies from first-in-human to registration Phase III trials.
He runs a research-based practice, being Principal Investigator or Chief Investigator for over 70 early and late-phase clinical trials since his appointment to UCL in 2009. During his Oncology training he completed a PhD in biomarker development at the Institute of Cancer Research and he collaborates broadly with national and international groups involved in translational research.
He has published on topics ranging from cancer biology to translational oncology and clinical studies. He is UCL ECMC Academic Lead and UCLH Lead for Cancer Research. He chairs the NIHR Head & Neck Research Group and is Joint Lead for the Clinical Trials Theme of the Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence. He is also the North Thames Clinical Research Network Thoracic and Head&Neck Cancer Speciality Lead.
Ralph William Gilbert, MD, FRCSC
Otolaryngologist-in-Chief, University Health Network Gullane / O’Neil Chair,
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery,
University Health Network Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Toronto
Dr. Ralph Gilbert is the Otolaryngologist-in-Chief at University Health Network and holds the Gullane/O’Neil Chair in Otolaryngology/H&N Surgery. He is a Professor of Otolaryngology/H&N Surgery at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Gilbert completed his MD training at the University of Toronto in 1980, and his Postgraduate training in Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery in 1986. He completed two fellowships, one in Head and Neck Oncology at the Univeristy of Toronto and the second in Reconstructive Microsurgery at the University of Linkoping in Sweden.
Dr. Gilbert has served in numerous leadership role including Head of Surgical Oncology at the Odette Cancer Centre, Head and Neck Site Group Lead at Princess Margaret, Cancer Committee Chair and Chair and Vice-Chair of the UHN Medical Advisory Committee. Dr. Gilbert has led the Department of Otolaryngology/H&N Surgery at UHN since 2012.
Dr. Gilbert has a clinical and research focus in Head and Neck Oncology and complex Head and Neck Reconstruction of the Larynx, Airway and Oral Cavity with a 30 year experience in Reconstructive Microsurgery.