Catch-up with Johann de Bono

Can you tell us a little bit about your work, and why you got into clinical research?

My main driver for getting into clinical research was to serve patients. My current work is focused on the conduct of clinical trials pursuing proof of mechanism and proof of concept, as well as translational cancer research.

How did it feel to be awarded this prestigious honour?

The Joseph H. Burchenal Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research honours the hard work of many people and was only possible because of all the work that had been done by them. I felt privileged to represent many amazing people while delivering my talk at AACR.

What do you see as the biggest opportunity and the biggest challenge facing clinical research today?

This is a time of major advances in cancer care and through these opportunities we can develop better and kinder anticancer treatments improving both survival and quality of life. These advancements also present the opportunity to explore decreasing cancer risk in individuals with an inherited high risk of getting cancer. 

How has the ECMC network helped you in delivering your work?

The ECMC network has been key to all our drug development efforts. This has led to the approval of multiple drugs and the clinical development of multiple novel agents generated by chemists at the institute of cancer research.