UK Kidney Cancer Consultants

Dr Simon Chowdhury is a Consultant Medical Oncologist based at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Chowdhury was appointed to Guy’s hospital in 2007 to lead the medical oncology group in the treatment of urological cancers.

Dr Chowdhury received his first degree from the University of Cambridge and qualified as a doctor at Guys and St Thomas’ Medical School. He completed his PhD in tumour targeting at University College London. He also trained at St George’s and The Royal Marsden Hospitals. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, with which he retains strong links. Between 2000 and 2003. Dr Chowdhury was a Research Fellow for Cancer Research UK.

He is actively involved in clinical trial research into urological cancer, and is a member of the London Kidney Cancer Group which aims to develop further clinical trials in the London area. He is the joint lead for the treatment of urological cancers within the South East London Cancer Network.

He has co-authored over 20 papers in peer-reviewed journals and contributed chapters to six medical texts

Dr Paul Nathan is a Consultant Medical Oncologist based at The Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, in Northwood, Middlesex.

Dr Nathan received his first medical degree from Cambridge University and qualified in medicine at University College London, both achieved after earlier degrees (including a PhD) specialising in immunology. He was a Fulbright Scholar and carried out his post-doctoral research at the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute in the US. He initially pursued cancer research in academia and in the pharmaceutical industry before finally deciding to pursue a clinical career.

Dr Nathan has a specialist interest in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer) and melanoma (both uveal and cutaneous).  He also has an interest in Merkel Cell Carcinoma.

He is first author of the UK guidelines for the systemic treatment of renal cell carcinoma, a member of the National Cancer Research Institute groups for both renal carcinoma and melanoma and is secretary of the UK Melanoma Study Group. He also is a member of the panel currently reviewing the national melanoma guidelines.

Professor Jonathan Waxman is Professor of Oncology at Imperial College London.

Prof Waxman practises as a general oncologist, treating patients with a wide range of malignancies. He specialises in urological oncology treating patients with prostate, kidney, bladder and testicular cancer and has developed new treatments for these conditions such as LHRH agonist therapy for prostate cancer.

He helped establish an All Party Parliamentary Group to improve cancer treatment and rationalise cancer research throughout the UK and has developed and led successful media campaigns to rationalise cancer treatments and change government health policy.

He has had many years experience in Medico-Legal work providing expert reports to plantiff and defendant and appearing as an expert witness. He  has written a textbook of medical law and many medical textbook and research papers. Professor Waxman has written around 400 scientific research papers and chapters and 11 books on cancer.

Professor Tim Eisen is a Medical Oncologist and clinical trialist based at Addenbrooke's Hospital and Cambridge University.

Professor Eisen is interested in developing new treatments for advanced disease, identifying and managing those at risk of disease. His special clinical areas are kidney cancer, lung cancer and melanoma. In kidney cancer and melanoma he has been particularly involved in the development of tyrosine kinase inhibitors as therapeutic agents.

Professor Eisen is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians; American Society for Clinical Oncology; European Society for Medical Oncology, a Trustee of Macmillan, a Member & Trustee of Kidney Cancer UK and Medical Advisor to Kidney Cancer Association.

Professor Robert Huddart is a Consultant Clinical Oncologist based at The Royal Marsden Hospital.

Prof Huddart joined The Royal Marsden as a Registrar in 1989 and was appointed Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Oncology at The Royal Marsden and The Institute of Cancer Research in 1995.

Prof Huddart is a Reader in Urological Oncology (since 2007) at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), leading a team in the Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging that researches bladder and testicular cancer. He is one of the ICR’s top scientists in the Everyman laboratories and also an Honorary Consultant in Urological Oncology at The Royal Marsden, where he manages and treats patients with urological cancer - cancer that affects the kidney, bladder, prostate, testicles and penis.

He completed a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Medicine at Oxford, and a Bachelor of Surgery at the University of London before undertaking general medical training in Oxford and Cambridge. He gained membership to the Royal College of Physicians and then moved to The Royal Marsden for specialist training in oncology. Dr Huddart was awarded gold medals in both stages of the examination to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists. He first joined the ICR to complete a PhD in the molecular biology of testicular cancer with Professor Colin Cooper.

“Working as a clinical academic at the ICR and The Royal Marsden provides an almost unique opportunity in the UK of working and researching at the cutting edge of oncology, meeting and working with some of the UK's top cancer scientists and being able to investigate and use new technologies and developments. This, combined with the excellence of cancer care within The Royal Marsden, means there is no better place, in my view, for an oncologist to be,” says Prof Huddart.

He recently retired (after 6 years) as Chair of the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) testicular cancer group, and jointly leads the ICR’s postgraduate course in oncology. Most recently, he has qualified for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from University College, London. In the future, Dr Huddart hopes to be involved in “developing new personalised treatments which make a real impact on the outlook of the patients we see each week”. He continues to contribute nationally through the Royal College of Radiologists (currently sitting on Specialist Training Board and quality assurance subcommittee) and regionally as a member of the London School of Oncology Board and Training Program director.

Prof Huddart is a member of the following national groups: NCRI Testis Cancer Group, including survivorship sub-group; NCRI Bladder Cancer group, including its localised and advanced sub-groups; CT Rad workstream 3; NCIN urology site-specific reference group; NICE clinical guideline development group for bladder cancer.

Dr Kate Fife is a Consultant Clinical Oncologist based at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. She was appointed in 2001.

Dr Fife trained in medicine at St George’s Hospital in London and went on to train in oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital. She carried out clinical research in HIV related malignancies whilst a research fellow at Chelsea and Westminster, and Charing Cross Hospitals and completed an MD in angiogenesis related laboratory research in 1998. She completed her oncology training at the Hammersmith Hospital. Subsequently she was a locum Consultant and research fellow at the Sydney Cancer Centre and Sydney Melanoma Unit, carrying out further laboratory and clinical research.

Together with Prof Tim Eisen and Dr Athena Matakidou, she runs a large research focussed renal cancer clinic, seeing approximately 130 new patients per year, making it one of the largest specialist centres for this cancer in the UK.  Her other interests are skin malignancies and lung cancer. She treats basal cell and squamous cell cancers of the skin and metastatic melanoma with radiotherapy and patients with rare skin cancers, cutaneous lymphomas and Kaposi’s sarcoma. She is also interested in training and is an educational supervisor.

She is a member of the National Cancer Research Institute Renal Cancer Studies Group and has a frequent attendance and presentations at National and International meetings. 

Dr Jason Lester is a Consultant Clinical Oncologist based at The Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff.

Dr Lester qualified from Guy's Hospital Medical School, London in 1993 and trained in general medicine in the South East of England. He completed his oncological training in 2003, and was appointed as a Consultant Oncologist at Velindre Cancer Centre the same year, where he is currently Deputy Clinical Director and Lead Clinican for lung cancer in the Trust, bringing vast experience and expertise and offering specialist cancer diagnosis and treatment.

He advises patients on all aspects of Non-surgical treatment of lung cancer, mesothelioma and urological cancers (prostate, kidney and bladder cancer); Chemotherapy and targeted therapy for lung and urological cancers; Stereotactic radiotherapy for early lung cancer; Combined modality therapy for locally advanced lung cancer; Brachytherapy for prostate cancer; IMRT / IGRT radiotherapy for prostate cancer; Bladder sparing treatment for bladder cancer. He is responsible for prescribing and supervising the administration of radiotherapy, radioisotope treatment, cytotoxic chemotherapy and hormone therapy. He is also the Clinical Lead for the All Wales Prostate Cancer Brachytherapy service based at Velindre Cancer Centre. 

Dr Lester is a member of Royal College of Physicians, Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists, Honorary Research Fellow, Cardiff School of Medicine and British Thoracic Oncology Group Committee Member. He also manages The Stepping Stones Appeal, the Wales-based lung cancer research fund.

Dr Duncan McLaren is a Consultant Clinical Oncologist based at The Edinburgh Cancer Centre, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh.

Dr McLaren undertook Undergraduate training at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London and also undertook an intercalated BSc in Clinical Science where he gained First Class Honours. His General Medical training was at Queens University Hospital Nottingham and he had specialist cancer training at Velindre Cancer Hospital Cardiff. He was given a clinical Fellowship specialising in GU oncology at the British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver and was appointed as Consultant Clinical Oncologist and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at the Edinburgh Cancer Centre in 1998. 

Dr McLaren is a specialist in Genito-Urinary Oncology and runs a large practice offering non-surgical treatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy for Urological Cancer patients. He has a particular interest in Prostate Brachytherapy (seeds). Edinburgh was the first Scottish Centre to offer this treatment in 2001. He can offer dose-escalated radiotherapy with IMRT for prostate cancer and conformal radiotherapy for bladder cancer. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is routinely used before surgery or radiotherapy for bladder cancer. He provides the Scottish Prostate Brachytherapy Service in conjunction with Glasgow. The Edinburgh brachytherapy team was honoured to win Hospital Doctor Oncology Team of the year in 2005

Dr McLaren is a member of the Royal College of Radiologists (London), Royal College of Physicians, British Urological Group, South East Scotland GU Cander Group (SCAN), UK and Ireland Brachytherapy Users Group and is appointed to the National Cancer Research Network Clinical Trials (NCRN) group for Prostate Cancer and Bladder Cancer

Professor Peter Selby is a Professor of Medical Oncology and Consultant Physician at St James’s University Hospital, the St James’s Institute of Oncology and Professor of Cancer Medicine at the University of Leeds.

Prof Selby has worked in cancer research and cancer care since 1976.  After completing a Natural Sciences degree at the University of Cambridge in 1971, he undertook undergraduate medical training at King’s College Hospital in London and then medical and oncological training posts in Kings College Hospital, University College Hospital and the Royal Marsden Hospital in London and in the Princess Margaret Hospital and Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto.  He was a clinical research fellow at the Institute for Cancer Research and Royal Marsden and became a Consultant and Senior Lecturer there in 1984.  

He was appointed Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998, and awarded a CBE in 2001 for services to cancer research and cancer care.  Peter  is President of the Association of Cancer Physicians (2007-) and won the Pfizer Excellence in Oncology Lifetime Achievement award in 2007.  He is an Honorary Life member of the British Psychosocial Oncology Society and remains a co-investigator on patient reported outcome research into prostate cancer and chemotherapy toxicity.  In 2010 he was appointed a Senior Investigator of the National Institute for Health Research.  In 2011 he was awarded a DSc.  

As Director/Lead Clinician of the NHS Leeds Cancer Centre (1997-2003) he organised specialised multidisciplinary care for cancer patients and led the development of excellent facilities for patients.  More recently (2013) he helped to initiate an Integrated Cancer Service to address the need for better access to care and address inequalities.  He was Consultant Advisor on Cancer Services to the Chief Medical Officer in England (Sir Kenneth Calman) (1993-2000) and is President and Chief Executive of the European Cancer Concord (2014-).  In both latter roles he sought to develop and implement evidence-based plans to improve outcomes for cancer patients and tackle cancer inequalities.  Peter is a Trustee of Cancer Research UK (2012-), Chairman of the Cancer Research UK Public Policy Advisory Group and a member of the Cancer Research UK Research Strategy Committee.

Professor Robert Hawkins is a Professor of Medical Oncology based at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.

Prof Hawkins attended medical school at Cambridge University and University College London and trained in Medical Oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital and Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, and obtained a PhD in antibody engineering at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, where he was a Fellow with Dr Greg Winter and Dr Cesar Milstein. As a Cancer Research UK Senior Clinical Fellow he developed translational research interests in antibody based gene therapy. He was appointed as a Consultant in Medical Oncology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge in 1995 and then became Professor of Oncology at the University of Bristol in 1996 before undertaking his current role at the Christie as Professor of Medical Oncology in 1998.

His main clinical interests are in renal(Kidney)/adrenal cancers, focusing on immunotherapy. He leads the Christie Renal Oncology Service and undertakes a large number of clinical trials, Specialising in the delivery of high dose interleukin-2 as a potentially curative treatment for selected patients with renal cancer.

Professor Hawkins holds Memberships of Committees and Professional Bodies on the American Society for Gene Therapy (ASGT); International Society for Biological Therapy of Cancer (ISBTC); British Association for Cancer Research (BACR); American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO); European Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ESGCT) and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO).