David Kerr (oncologist)


Professor David James Kerr CBE, MA MD DSc FRCP FRCGP FMedSci is a British cancer researcher. His primary area of research is treatment and management of colorectal cancer.
He has recently resigned as the Chief Research Advisor, Sidra Medical and Research Center in Doha, Qatar. Kerr is no longer Director, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute; His role as a Member of Supreme Council of Health, Qatar has been allocated to Lord Darzi.
Kerr is Professor of Cancer Medicine and former Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He is also President-Elect for European Society for Medical Oncology.
Kerr’s clinical research into adjuvant therapy of early stage colorectal cancer has contributed to saving thousands of lives over the past two decades.

Early life and education

Kerr was born in Glasgow in 1956. He attended Dunard Street Primary School, Maryhill and Eastwood High Secondary School. Knowing from a relatively early age that he wanted to become a doctor having read A. J. Cronin's The Citadel as a child, he went on to study biochemistry and medicine at Glasgow University, and subsequently became an oncologic clinician scientist following specialist & fellowship training within the Department of Medical Oncology at the University of Glasgow under Professor S. Kaye.

Career

From March 1992, Kerr was Professor of Clinical Oncology at University of Birmingham and Director of Clinical Trials Unit where he and Professor Alan Rickinson built the Institute of Cancer Studies at the University.
In 1994, he became the Clinical Director of the Regional Cancer Task Force for the West Midlands where he developed the model for cancer services in the region which involve in writing a Cancer Plan – The "hub and spoke" Network model was developed to include four key elements:
He undertook the first national audit of cancer waiting times for Sir Kenneth Calman, who was then Chief Medical Officer which was one of the drivers which led to the Government creating a National Cancer Plan.
In 2001, he was appointed Rhodes Professor of Clinical pharmacology and Cancer Therapeutics and Head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Oxford. At the same time he was also asked by the Secretary of State for Health Alan Milburn to undertake a review of NHS research strategy into cancer. The resultant blueprint for provision of infrastructure to support clinical cancer research in the UK led to the establishment of the NHS Cancer Research Network and the National Translational Cancer Research Network. Kerr was subsequently appointed the Director of NTRAC.
He subsequently worked with colleagues to build an Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cancer Treatment Centre in Oxford.
In 2004, Kerr was invited by Scotland’s First Minister to chair the work of a National Framework Advisory Group to consider the future shape of the NHS in Scotland. This Group produced three volumes of work, "Building a Health Service Fit for the Future" and a web-based data link showing the Reports from the individual action teams. This has been adopted as the blueprint for Scotland’s NHS over the next 20 years.
In 2009, David Kerr took a leave of absence from Oxford University to become the Chief Research Advisor at the Sidra Medical and Research Center. In April 2009, he became a Member of the Supreme Council of Health. He is no longer working for Sidra having moved back to the UK
Kerr has made a substantial contribution to cancer care and research in Europe. He co-chaired the Anglo-French Scientific committee celebrating the centenary of the Entente-Cordiale after the Queen and President Chirac nominated cancer research as their joint theme. He has established the first Network of India's top cancer centres, turning it into an internationally recognised trials network and has trained many young Indian oncologists.
He has brought worldwide attention to the looming epidemic of cancer which will claim the lives of more than a million Africans every year. He organised the first ever African Cancer Reform convention in London. This was attended by 27 African Health ministries, led to the London Declaration calling for immediate action to develop cancer control plans for these nations. Subsequently Kerr was asked by African ministers to lead a new organisation, AfrOx to aid national cancer planning in Africa. AfrOx has already received unprecedented international support and is seen as a beacon to establish cancer care in Africa. He has completed a National Cancer Plan for Ghana, has been invited by the governments of Rwanda, Nigeria and Sierra Leone to lead their cancer plan activities, has initiated a mass vaccination programme for cervical cancer, the commonest cancer affecting African women, and is co-ordinating the International Oncology Association's engagement in this field.
Kerr spoke at the New Frontiers in Science Diplomacy event and blogged on the Guardian about it.

Published works

Kerr has published over 350 papers in peer reviewed journals. His primary areas of research are: Colorectal Cancer and Gene therapy. He has been awarded several patents which have fuelled in spin out biotech companies – Cobra Therapeutics, Oxford Cancer Biomarkers, and Celleron Therapeutics.
He sits on a number of general editorial boards including Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology journal.

Awards