Professor David Sebag-Montefiore

Profile

Professor David Sebag-Montefiore is an academic clinical oncologist at the University of Leeds and an honorary Clinical Oncologist at Leeds Cancer Centre, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. He leads the Leeds Radiotherapy Research Group, located in the Leeds Institute of Medicine at St James’s University Hospital and is a Clinical Director of the Leeds Clinical Trial Research Unit.

After completing undergraduate medical training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School, University of London, David received his clinical oncology training in at St Bartholomew’s, Middlesex and Mount Vernon Hosptials. He received was awarded the Rohan Williams medal by the Royal College of Radiologists. He was appointed as a consultant clinical oncologist in Leeds in 1995. He was awarded a Honorary Chair in 2010 and the Audrey and Stanley Burton Chair of Clinical Oncology in 2012.

David leads a portfolio of practice changing and innovative clinical trials focussing on gastrointestinal cancer with a focus on rectal and anal cancer. These include leadership of the MRC CR07, CRUK ACT2, CRUK ARISTOTLE and CRUK PLATO ACT3,4 and 5 trials.

David is the Vice Chair and Chair Elect of the National Cancer Research Institute Clinical and Translational Radiotherapy Research Group (CTRad) and Chair of the CTrad Proton Beam Clinical Trial Strategy Group. He is Vice Chair of the National Institute of Health Research, Health Technology Assessment Prioritisation Panel for in hospital research and previous Chair of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Advisory and Awards Committee.

Research interests

Current research interests include the personalisation of radiotherapy for primary and recurrent lower gastronintestinal cancers. This includes:-

Clinical trials – Chief Investigator or joint lead for the MRC CR07 (n=1350) and the ARISTOTLE (n=580) phase III rectal cancer trials. The MRC CR07 trial established the benefit of adding short course radiotherapy to TME surgery, halving local recurrence and changed routine clinical practice. ARISTOTLE completed recruitment in july 2018 (n=580). Chief Investigator or joint lead for ACT 2,  the largest phase III anal cancer trial and the current PLATO trial clinical and translational trial platform personalising radiotherapy dose in anal cancer (ACT 3,4 and 5 trials).

Clinical Trials Research Interests include:-

• Innovative and adaptive clinical trial designs answering radiotherapy related scientific questions relating to both novel radiotherapy including proton beam and novel drug radiotherapy combinations.
• Integration of translational research questions into clinical trials and developing designs that use biomarkers to stratify or determine novel treatment
• Achieving greater scientific depth of the analysis of clinical trials including impact

Precision radiotherapy – to optimise the technical and patient focused delivery of radiotherapy for primary and recurrent rectal and anal cancer. This includes use of Patient Reported Outcomes in clinical trial and non trial patients.

Develop the future leaders in radiotherapy research. We provide an excellent environment for research and clinical training. I am passionate about developing the future academic workforce. We have a proven track record of developing clinicians from Academic Clinical Fellows though to  Lecturerships and Subsequent Fellowships.

Qualifications

• MB BS 1983, University of London
• MRCP(UK) 1986, Royal College of Physicians, London
• FRCR 1990, Royal College of Radiologists, London
• FRCP 1999, Royal College of Physicians, London

Professional memberships

• Royal College of Radiologists
• European Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology
• American Society of Clinical Oncology
• British Medical Association

Student education

I undertake undergraduate and postgraduate clinical oncology teaching. I supervise undergraduate and postgraduate research students. At post graduate level I contribute locally nationally and internationally.

Research groups and institutes

• Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James's
• The Radiotherapy Research Group