Johann de Bono - Profile
Dr Johann de Bono is creating new molecular targeted therapies to improve treatment for prostate cancer patients. Molecular targeted therapies differ from traditional treatments such as chemotherapy in that they are designed to act on only cancer cells and minimise damage to healthy cells. Dr de Bono has been involved in developing more than 100 potential new drugs over the past decade, several of which are now available to patients, and is currently evaluating more than 20 drugs in early clinical trials. One of these drugs is abiraterone, which has the potential to treat up to 80 per cent of patients with aggressive and previously drug resistant prostate cancer.
Dr de Bono was born and raised in Malta, and graduated from Glasgow University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery. He became a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1992, and completed his PhD and MSc at the Beatson Institute of Cancer Research in Glasgow in 1997.
He trained as a medical oncologist between 1996 and 2000, spending part of the time learning about clinical trial design in Seattle, United States. This training lead to three years at the Institute for Drug Development in San Antonio, Texas, which Dr de Bono says was an invaluable experience that gave him an “outstanding blueprint” for running similar programs.
Dr de Bono joined The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in 2003 as a Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology. As well as research, he is involved in training and supervising PhD and MD (Res) research students and treating patients with castration resistant prostate cancer.
Dr de Bono has received many awards during his career, holds editorial roles at peer-reviewed journals and is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London) and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He is the UK European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) representative and currently sits on the ESMO Board of Directors as well as the NCRI Prostate Cancer Clinical Studies Group.
Dr de Bono is married to Hazel, who is Scottish, and has three children. He enjoys football and has been a Liverpool FC fan for more than 30 years. He collects jazz, blues and classical music, enjoys cycling, hill-walking and chess.
