On the occasion of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Targeted Anticancer Therapies (TAT) Virtual Congress 2021, a pioneering UK oncology researcher has been chosen to receive the TAT 2021 Honorary Award.
Prof Ruth Plummer, Clinical Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine at Newcastle University and Honorary Consultant Medical Oncologist, Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, will receive the award in recognition of her relentless trial activity, which has taken many new cancer drugs into the clinic that have become standard treatments with proven patient benefit.
Prof Plummer runs a phase 1 all-comers practice, taking responsibility for one of the most active phase I units in the UK. She also directs the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre and leads the Newcastle Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre and CRUK Newcastle Cancer Centre. Her clinical practice involves leading on the systemic therapies for skin cancer, with a portfolio of trials across all phases of drug development in skin cancers.
Prof Plummer’s research interests are in the field of DNA repair and early phase clinical trials of novel agents, taking the first-in-class PARP inhibitor into the clinic in 2003, ATR inhibitor in 2012 and MCT1 inhibitor in 2014. Her work also contributed to the development and validation of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic assays in early clinical drug development; now embedded in early phase trial design.
“I was delighted to be recognised in this way. Having spent my working life over the last 20 years developing the early phase trials practice in our dedicated cancer research unit, it is wonderful to realise that the work of this team is being recognised by ESMO. The ESMO TAT Congress is the home of phase I and being given their honorary award is recognition for the trials team that our work is being viewed as high quality,” said Prof Plummer on accepting the award.
