Professor Ian Smith

Ian E. Smith, MD, FRCP, FRCPE, is Professor of Cancer Medicine at The Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute of Cancer Research, London, United Kingdom. He is one of the leading breast cancer specialists in the UK, and is widely known internationally. He was recently awarded The William McGuire Memorial Award and Lecture at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Conference in December 2018; this is probably the highest international honour to be given to a specialist in breast cancer treatment and research. His initial medical training was in Edinburgh and then he came to the Royal Marsden and Institute of Cancer, London, for specialist training in cancer medicine. He also spent some time training in Boston at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard. Over the years his principal clinical research interests have been in breast cancer, and in the development of new treatments. In recent years he has become increasingly involved in medical treatments before surgery as a new approach towards individualised treatments for breast cancer. He is currently Chief Investigator or UK Principal Investigator for several international multicentre breast cancer trials involving in particular targeted therapies and aromatase inhibitors. He is also Chief Investigator for the UK POETIC trial, the largest of its kind in the world, aiming to individualise adjuvant therapy for patients with early breast cancer. He publishes extensively and is regularly invited to lecture at breast cancer conferences around the world. He was awarded the Susan G Komen for the Cure Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction at the 2009 San Antonio International Breast Cancer Conference, in addition to the McGuire Award and Lecture (see above). Professor Smith was the first chairman of the UK Breast Trials Intergroup and has also been chairman of the British Breast Group and several national professional bodies including the Association of Cancer Physicians, and the Royal College of Physicians Specialist Advisory Committee for Medical Oncology. In 2014 he was appointed the first Chair of the recently formed national Breast Cancer Clinical Expert Group which advises the NHS and the most appropriate treatments for breast cancer. He is a Patron of Breast Cancer Care, the largest UK breast charity for patient support, and a Trustee of Breast Cancer Haven, another major patient support charity

Medical Treatment of Breast Cancer