Beating Cancer Before It Starts: Lessons Learnt from Screening

Frances Fitzgerald is an Irish MEP from Dublin. Member, Committee on Economic and Monetary... Frances Fitzgerald is an Irish MEP from Dublin. Member, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats). A parliamentarian for over 20 years, she served as Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) from 2016-17, one of only four women to have ever held this position. She has also served as Minister for Business, Enterprise & Innovation (2017); Minister for Justice & Equality (2014-17) and was the State’s first Minister for Children & Youth Affairs (2011-14). Prior to her election to the Dáil (Irish Parliament), Frances served as Chair of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (1988-92) and Vice President of the European Women’s Lobby. Frances was elected to the European Parliament in 2019. She is a full member of the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee (FEMM) and the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON and a substitute member of the Development Committee (DEVE). Frances was elected EPP Coordinator of the FEMM Committee in July 2019. Frances has previously served on the board of the Breast Research Foundation in St. Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin, and was also Vice-Chair of Europa Donna, the European breast cancer campaign. Read more Show less

As an experienced physician, Dr. Frank Verholen also knows the daily routine in the clinic and... As an experienced physician, Dr. Frank Verholen also knows the daily routine in the clinic and can combine the great wealth of knowledge of medical practice with the pharmacological innovations, e.g. from Bayer. Frank Verholen studied medicine at the Ruhr University in Bochum and completed his doctorate there. He then worked for more than 10 years at the University Hospitals of Geneva, where he acquired his knowledge for training as a specialist in internal medicine as well as a specialist in hematology. Dr. Verholen initially worked in various positions in the pharmaceutical industry in Switzerland and Germany, as well on a European level, before he took on the global medical responsibility at Bayer for radium-223 in 2016. For several years, he has headed the medical department for the urogenital division, including prostate cancer, in the Bayer Oncology Business Unit. Read more Show less

Jan van Meerbeeck is Board Member, European Cancer Organisation and Prevention Network Co-Chair.... Jan van Meerbeeck is Board Member, European Cancer Organisation and Prevention Network Co-Chair. After obtaining his medical degree magna cum laude from the University of Antwerp in 1980, Prof van Meerbeeck completed training to become a board certified specialist in internal medicine and pulmonology. He is a skilled interventional pulmonologist and obtained his PhD in 1997 with a dissertation on the presentation of lung cancer in Flanders, Belgium. He is currently professor of Thoracic Oncology at both Ghent and Antwerp University and practiced as pulmonologist at Antwerp University Hospital, Belgium and at Erasmus MC, the Netherlands. He was Chair of the Thoracic Oncology Program at Ghent University Hospital, where he became also Divisional Head and CMO. He is currently appointed full professor in Pulmonology @ Antwerp University and chair of the Pulmonology Department of its academic hospital (UZA). His translational scientific interests include the molecular diagnosis of lung cancer, the management of mesothelioma and the evaluation of volatile biomarkers of asbestos exposure. He is or was the study coordinator or Principal Investigator for numerous international phase 2 and 3 studies in thoracic oncology and respiratory medicine and promoter of several master thesis and PhD students, of which 7 successfully obtained their PhD. Together with Kevin Lamote, he is the founder of the breathomics lab within the Laboratory of experimental medicine and pediatrics (LEMP) @ University of Antwerp. He is furthermore fellow of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and serves its Thoracic Oncology Assembly as current chair and member of the mesothelioma guideline committee. He served the Lung Cancer Group of the EORTC as secretary, chairman and as board member, is a full member of the ASCO and the IASLC (current member of its staging committee), and expert at the Belgian HTA Knowledge Center KCE. He was involved in the development of the ICHOM standard set on Lung cancer and board member of All.Can and All.Can Belgium. He has an extensive presentation and publication track, with more than 300 peer-reviewed articles in various journals and chapters in textbooks. He serves on the review and editorial boards of several international journals, and organized several national and international meetings. Read more Show less

Michelle Mitchell OBE joined November 2018. She is responsible for the overall leadership and... Michelle Mitchell OBE joined November 2018. She is responsible for the overall leadership and management of Cancer RRUK, the world’s leading charitable funder of research. Michelle is a senior voluntary sector leader who has transformed a number of not-for-profit organisations to better their purpose and global impact. She has a successful track record of delivering long term value, collaboration and innovation. She believes that by working together, and building the strongest possible team, we will beat cancer together. She is a member of the National Cancer Board. Before joining Cancer Research UK, Michelle was CEO of the MS Society for five years and a founding member of the Progressive MS Alliance: a global scientific and research joint venture and launched the STOP MS £100m appeal. Prior to that, she was Director General at Age UK, the UK’s largest older people’s charity where she worked for nearly a decade and was at the forefront of national debates on health, care and welfare. Michelle has extensive non-executive experience, which has previously included NED at NHS England, which sets the priorities and direction for the NHS in England and a Trustee of the King’s Fund, a leading health policy think-tank. Michelle has a BA in Economics, an MA in Politics and Public Administration and an International Executive Diploma from INSEAD. Michelle was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to the charity sector. Read more Show less

Ruud Pijnappel, MD, PhD is professor of Breast Radiology at University Medical Centre Utrecht;... Ruud Pijnappel, MD, PhD is professor of Breast Radiology at University Medical Centre Utrecht; Utrecht University, The Netherlands and CEO at the Dutch Expert Center for Screening (LRCB) . He received his medical training at the University of Amsterdam. His special interest in Breast imaging and intervention was developed during a fellowship at University of Utrecht where he received his PhD in 2002 on the subject ‘The diagnosis of nonpalpable breast lesions'. Since 1996 Prof. Pijnappel main clinical and research interests include breast imaging, screening and intervention. Working with and teaching residents and fellow's the details of breast cancer screening and assessment in a multidisciplinary setting serves his particular interests. Prof. Pijnappel also serves as a member of the advisory board of Government for the Dutch National Screening Program for Breast Cancer. He is past president of the Dutch College of Breast Imaging (DCBI) and since 2020 Vice President of the EUSOBI. Read more Show less

Stefan N. Constantinescu is Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at Université catholique de... Stefan N. Constantinescu is Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at Université catholique de Louvain, head a research unit in cell signalling and molecular hematology at Duve Institute and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Brussels, Belgium. He is an MD and PhD that has received postdoctoral training in molecular cell biology with Prof. Harvey F. Lodish at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA as a fellow of the Medical Foundation Boston and of the Anna Fuller Fund (1995-2000). In 2000 he started his independent laboratory at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Brussels where he studies the structure and function of cytokine receptors, Janus kinases and STATs, as well as signalling in normal and pathological blood formation. His research group contributed in 2005 in collaboration with William Vainchenker to the discovery of JAK2 V617F mutation myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). He also reported the first JAK1 and TYK2 active mutants in 2005 now detected in T-leukemia and identified key thrombopoietin receptor mutations that induce myeloproliferative neoplasms and elucidated in collaboration with R. Kralovics and W. Vainchenker the mechanisms by which calreticulin mutants induce MPNs. He is an Internal Consultant in the Service of Hematology at the Saint Luc University Hospital in Brussels. In addition, he recently (2021) started a second research group on cancer signalling and epigenetics at the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford within the Ludwig Cancer Research Oxford where he will spend 25% of his time. He is a Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium, of the Romanian Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Romanian Academy and was recently elected President of the Federation of European Academies of Medicine for the 2021-2024 mandate. For his research he received the Five Year Prize for Basic Medical Sciences of the Federal Belgian Government in 2015 and the Prize of the Gaston and Alexandre Tytgat Foundation in 2021. Read more Show less