Petty Russell

Biography

Professor Russell Petty is a graduate of University of Dundee School of Medicine and he   completed his initial general medical training in Dundee, Newcastle,  and Hobart , then  specialist  and academic training in Medical Oncology in Aberdeen and Auckland. In 2007   he was appointed as a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Medical Oncology at the University of Aberdeen and promoted to Professor of Medical Oncology in 2014 . In September 2015 he was appointed as Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Dundee and honorary consultant in Medical Oncology in Ninewells Hospital, NHS Tayside. His main research interests are in clinical and translational research in gastro-oesophageal cancers. He was the chief investigator of the recently completed COG trial which was the first Phase III  randomised controlled  trial of second line therapy in oesophageal cancer and lead the translational arm TRANSCOG which identified a predictive biomarker for a gefitinib responsive subgroup of tumours. He is a current member of the trial  management groups for several UK  national clinical trials in gastroesophageal cancer  including PLATFORM and  GO-2 and   the translational research lead for TRANS-GO2 and TRANSCOG2. Professor Petty is the current speciality adviser in Medical Oncology to the Chief Medical officer in Scotland. He  acts as a clinical expert for SMC and NICE and recently contributed to the Scottish Parliament Health and Sport Committee enquiry in to access to new medicines in Scotland and the reform of SMC process for evaluation of new medicines which included the development of the patient and clinician engagement  (PACE) process . He is a current member of the NCRN UGI cancers clinical study group and the EORTC gastric cancer task force and  a member of the Editorial Board of BMC Cancer.

Research Interest

Professor Petty leads a research programme in clinical and translational cancer medicine focused upon oesophageal and gastric cancer involving both laboratory research, as well as early and late phase clinical trials. Oesophageal cancer represents a formidable healthcare challenge, with  the incidence of oesophageal adenocarcinoma rising rapidly in recent decades in western countries and  the incidence of  squamous cell carcinoma remaining high throughout the far east and in the developing world. The outcomes with current therapies remain suboptimal especially by comparison to other tumour types, in the UK 60% of oesophageal cancer  patients die from the disease  within 1 year of diagnosis, and  5 year survival is only  15%. There is an urgent unmet clinical need for improved therapies for oesophageal cancer, particularly improved systemic treatments.