Peter Johnson speaks to Gemma Westcott, Commissioning Editor: Peter Johnson is Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Southampton and Chief Clinician for Cancer Research UK. He graduated from Cambridge University and St Thomas's Medical School (UK). He trained in oncology at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, where he was an Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) Clinical Research Fellow and completed his doctoral research on the Bcl-2 gene, its potential as a therapeutic target in lymphoma and the effects of CD40 ligation on the B-cell surface. He was subsequently a Senior Lecturer in Medical Oncology in the ICRF Cancer Medicine Research Unit, Leeds and took up the Chair of Medical Oncology in Southampton (UK) in 1998. He is responsible for bringing together a broad multidisciplinary group of basic, translational and clinical researchers, and linking the research of the academic unit to the extensive clinical practice in cancer treatment in the Southampton Cancer Centre. His research interests are in applied immunology and immunotherapy, lymphoma biology and clinical trials. He is Chief Investigator for lymphoma trials ranging from first in man novel antibody therapeutics to international randomized studies, and for the Cancer Research UK Stratified Medicine Programme. He was Chair of the UK National Cancer Research Institute Lymphoma Group from 2005 to 2011 and has been a member of national trials committees for the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK and Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.
Keywords: Cancer Research UK; NICE; olaparib; ovarian cancer; personalized medicine.