Present Positions: Emeritus Professor of Medical Oncology, Department of Oncology, Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of St Hugh’s College, Oxford.
Chairman of Cancer Research UK Cancer Centre Translational Committee, Oxford.
Chairman of Grant Committee RFH Charity, Royal Free Hospital and UCL.
Previous Positions 1981-2018
Professor of Medical Oncology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne 1981-1988
Cancer Research UK Professor of Medical Oncology, University of Oxford 1989-2018
Director of Molecular Oncology Laboratories, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine
Consultant Medical Oncologist, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust
Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre Director, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust and Cancer Research UK until 2010
Senior Investigator for the National Institute for Health Research
Statement
My major clinical and laboratory interests involved breast cancer therapy, the role of hypoxia in breast tumour biology, and tumour angiogenesis, the metabolic response to hypoxia, noncoding RNAs induced by hypoxia and hypoxia-induced cell death. I have conducted many predictive and prognostic studies and early exploratory phase trials in new drug development, molecular pathology and biomarkers to translate laboratory findings to clinical relevance and development of new agents with pharmacodynamic monitoring for proof of target engagement.
Publications
I am in the list of investigators from Boyack KW, Klavans R, Sorensen AA, Ioannidis JP. A list of highly influential biomedical researchers, 1996-2011. Eur J Clin Invest. 2013 Dec;43(12):1339-65. These are Top 400 world-wide cited investigators in all biomedical fields from Scopus. doi: 10.1111/eci.12171. Epub 2013 Oct 21. PubMed PMID: 24134636. Updated in TOPSCINET.com 2025
Total papers > 500: First author 105 Senior author or coauthor 217
Google Scholar Citations 195,431 h-index 213
Alaa AM, Machine learning to guide the use of adjuvant therapies for breast cancer. Nature Machine Intelligence 2021; 3: 716-726. Skwarski M, Mitochondrial inhibitor atovaquone increases tumor oxygenation and inhibits hypoxic gene expression in patients with non–small cell lung cancer. Clinical Cancer Research 2021; 27: 2459-2469. Westbrook RL, Proline synthesis through PYCR1 is required to support cancer cell proliferation and survival in oxygen-limiting conditions. Cell reports 2022; 38. Di Giovannantonio, Defining hypoxia in cancer: A landmark evaluation of hypoxia gene expression signatures. Cell Genomics 2025; 5. Pinho MP, Tumor-specific CD8 T cell characterization in HR+ breast cancer reveals an impaired antitumoral response in patients with lymph node metastasis. Cell Reports Medicine 2025; 6.
Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Cancer
Appointed to this post in 2005 -2023. Under my direction the impact factor has risen to 7.5.
Grants
£15m [2008-2018]I received a programme grant from the CR-UK for my research, subject to quinquennial review, since 1981-2020, 8 sequential 5 year funding approvals for clinical and laboratory research
Learn more about Adrian on his departmental page.
