Radiotherapy Group

Professor Robert Huddart

Chair

I am Professor in Urological Cancer and Honorary consultant Clinical Oncologist at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and Royal Marsden Hospital (RMH). I undertook specialist training in Clinical Oncology at the RMH in 1989 and was awarded the Frank Doyle and Rohan Williams medals to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists. In 1992, I joined the ICR to complete a PhD in the molecular biology of testicular cancer with Professor Colin Cooper. In 1995, I was appointed Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Oncology at RMH and ICR. In 2007 I was made Reader in Urological Oncology and in 2015, Professor in Urological Cancer.

My major research interest in improving the management of bladder cancer, particularly to improve conservative treatment in patients with muscle invasive bladder cancer. A major focus of my current work is the technical development of radiotherapy, including research on intensity-modulated and image-guided radiotherapy and the application of new imaging techniques. This is alongside work in selecting patients for conservative treatment, use of neoadjuvant and concomitant therapies. My second major research interests are in the management of testicular cancer with a focus on improving outcomes in high-risk disease, minimising toxicity in low-risk disease, work on survivorships issues and the genetics of testicular cancer.

I have served as Chair of the National Cancer Research Institute Testis Clinical Studies Group, Chair of the NCRI Bladder TABS Subgroup and co-chair of Workstream 3 of NCRI’s Clinical and Translational Radiotherapy and Research Working group. I jointly lead the MSc Oncology course at the ICR.

Professor Karen Kirkby

Deputy Chair

Prof. Karen Kirkby leads the Manchester Proton Therapy research bringing together the research effort at the University of Manchester and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.

She has published over 200 peer reviewed papers including articles in Nature and written for popular science magazines and newspapers. Her work can be seen at UK Science Museum’s Cancer Revolution exhibition and is featured in the University of Manchester’s Research Impact Showcase https://www.manchester.ac.uk/research/impact/showcase/proton-beam-therapy-centres/

Karen has been a member of CTRad since its early days and has recently Chaired its Workstream 4 on “New Technology, Physics and Quality Assurance”

Karen’s research group (Precise) now numbers over 30 people and has built a dedicated proton therapy research facility at The Christie.

Karen leads the EU project https://protonsinspire.eu which brings together research in proton therapy across Europe. She also leads CRUK RadNet Emerging Radiotherapy Technologies Working Group and is a member of the Institute of Physics Medical Physics committee. She has a research grant portfolio of over £28M, with funding from industry, NIHR, UKRI, EU and Charities. Karen was one of the organisers of PTCOG58 and founded a new conference series Flash Radiotherapy and Particle Therapy https://frpt-conference.org/ which will hold its second meeting in Barcelona in Dec 2022.