Charles Swanton, MD, PhD, FRCP, FMedSci, FRS
The GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer presented Charles Swanton, MD, PhD, FRCP, FMedSci, FRS, Senior Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute, with the 2020 Bonnie J. Addario Lectureship Award at the Physicians’ Education Resource 21st Annual International Lung Cancer Congress. GO2 is recognizing Dr. Swanton for his groundbreaking work in leading a study analyzing how lung cancer genes change over time.
TRACERx Study
Specifically, Dr. Swanton and his team are working to understand how lung cancer cells evolve and become resistant to treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The results of the TRACERx clinical study will determine how tailored treatments, based on a deeper understanding of lung cancer genetics, can transform treatment of the disease.
Dr. Swanton and his team are using the newest DNA sequencing technology to read the genetic makeup of cancer cells within tumors in greater detail, identifying patterns of evolution and cancer diversity. They are also investigating the processes that cause lung cancer cell mutations and accelerate tumor evolution, so they may soon bring immune and targeted therapies to benefit patients.
Education and Professional Experience
Dr. Swanton completed his PhD in 1998 at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories in the University College London MBPhD program before completing his medical oncology and Cancer Research UK (CRUK)-funded postdoctoral clinician scientist training in 2008. He was appointed CRUK Senior Clinical Research Fellow and Group Leader of the Translational Cancer Therapeutics laboratory at the London Research Institute (now part of the Francis Crick Institute) and a consultant medical oncologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital in 2008. He was appointed Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Chair in Personalised Cancer Medicine at the University College London Cancer Institute, and consultant thoracic medical oncologist at the University College London Hospitals in 2011.
His work has led to insights into genomic diversity within cancers (intratumor heterogeneity) and molecular mechanisms driving cancer-branched evolution.
