Professor Prof Peter Schmid

Professor Peter Schmid is an internationally renowned breast cancer oncologist. He is the clinical director of the Breast Cancer Centre at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and Chair in Cancer Medicine at Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University London.  Prof Schmid’s work is devoted to incorporating novel therapies based on an understanding of the biology of cancer with excellent quality of care into the treatment of women with breast cancer. He is committed to patient-centred, holistic care, tailoring treatments for individual patients using biology, personal preference and constant review of outcomes of care. He has a strong interest in patient-doctor communication and ran a training programme for oncologists and oncology nurses for many years. Prof Schmid’s international clinical and translational research programme is dedicated to improving the care of women with breast cancer by developing more effective and less toxic treatments. His group is investigating a variety of novel agents that target specific pathways within cancer cells and the surrounding tissue. He is the lead investigator of several pivotal studies on novel targeted therapeutics to improve the treatment of both early and late stage breast cancer.  Prof Schmid is renowned internationally for his work in immunotherapy. He was the lead investigator of the Impassion130 trial that lead to the approval of atezolizumab as the first immunotherapy for breast cancer, establishing a new standard of care for for advanced triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). He was also the lead investigator of the KEYNOTE-522 trial which established the addition of the immunotherapy Pembrolizumab to preoperative chemotherapy as a new standard for patients with stage II/III TNBC, based on a nearly 40% reduction in recurrences of this aggressive subtype. His current research interests include immune therapy combinations across all stages and subtypes and novel targeted agents and antibody-drug conjugates to overcome resistance. His work has been published in many journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Lancet Oncology, JAMA Oncology, Nature Communications and the Journal of Clinical Oncology.  In addition to his clinical and research work, Prof Schmid is committed to education, regularly lecturing locally, nationally and internationally on subjects relating to the treatment of and supportive care for breast cancer. Prof Schmid is medical director of Perci Health, a virtual care clinic, to provide access to cancer experts across multi-disciplinary fields, focused holistically on recovery from a physical, mental, social and emotional point of view. Prof Schmid is a member of several national and international cancer organisations and research groups. He has been involved in international consensus meetings and is co-author of international guidelines on the management of breast cancer. Prof Schmid is Chair of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) breast cancer faculty.

Breast cancer, from early breast cancer to advanced (secondary) disease, including endocrine treatment, immunotherapy, chemotherapy and targeted treatment. Breast cancer in young adults Triple-negative breast cancer Hormone receptor positive breast cancer and HER2-positive breast cancer  Interest in holistic management of side-effects of treatment, including aspects of fertility, pregnancy, menopausal symptoms and bone health. Personalised medicines and appropriate genetic testing. Immunotherapy Novel targeted agents and antibody-drug conjugates Works in context of multidisciplinary team with breast care nurse support for patients.