Chris Parker - Profile
Dr Chris Parker is a clinical oncologist at The Institute of Cancer Research. His research work focuses on finding better ways of predicting the aggressiveness of patients’ prostate cancer in order to decide the appropriate treatment.
He has several clinical trials underway, including working out whether regularly examining patients showing early signs of the cancer but without disease symptoms - known as active surveillance - is a better option than subjecting patients to treatments with adverse side effects. He is also testing whether giving radiotherapy treatment after surgery improves patient outcomes, and new treatments for advanced disease.
After gaining a first class degree in Medical Sciences from Cambridge, Dr Parker obtained his professional medical qualifications at Oxford. He has previously worked at St George’s Hospital in London and Princess Margaret Hospital in Canada, among others, and volunteered in Rwanda. He started at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in 1993 and is currently a Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Oncology and Prostate Cancer Translational Research. He has been a member of several high-level advisory and scientific organisations, including the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Guideline Development Group between 2005 and 2008, and sits on editorial boards for several peer-reviewed journals.
At the ICR, which he first joined in 1996, Dr Parker works within the Section of Academic Radiotherapy. Pleased to be part of the team at the ICR, he says "the best research relies on teamwork, and there’s no better prostate cancer research team in the country".
Improving the lot of men with prostate cancer is the driving force behind Dr Parker’s work. "Prostate cancer is unique. It’s the only common solid cancer that is so variable in its behaviour. On the one hand it can be a lethal disease killing one man every hour in the UK, and yet at the same time it can lie dormant for decades without causing any harm at all."
His dedication to unravelling the causes of the disease is in evidence when Dr Parker is asked about his hobbies: "None. I work too hard!"
