Karol Sikora

Karol Sikora Speaker Biography

Leading Authority in Oncology

Karol’s forty years experience as an oncologist has taught him that the effectiveness of treatment is more important than the organisation behind its delivery. While he still remains a Consultant Oncologist at Hammersmith Hospital, London, he launched CancerPartnersUK, Britain’s largest independent network of innovative cancer treatment centres. Building on his experience as Chief of the World Health Organisation’s Cancer Programme between 1997 and 1999 and an adviser to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, he has also formed CancerPartners International, which builds more affordable cancer centres in the developing world.

Leading Oncologist

Throughout his career as an academic and a practising oncologist, Karol has realised the importance of tailoring treatment specific to the needs of his patients by using the latest medical research. In 1992, he helped establish a major cancer research laboratory at Hammersmith, which was funded by the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. As a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and a Dean and Professor of Medicine at Buckingham University, Britain’s first independent university, he writes and lectures regularly on the use of biomarkers and surrogate endpoints by using molecular diagnostics to personalise therapy. His books have included Treatment of Cancer – the standard British postgraduate textbook – and most recently The Economics of Cancer Care.

Cancer Patient Advocate

Karol has continually fought on behalf of patients’ to have better access to new cancer drugs. In 2008, he was one of the main signatories of a letter to the Sunday Times, which forced the Government to review its policy of banning life-prolonging cancer medicines that are available to other cancer patients elsewhere in Europe. More recently he has campaigned and lobbied MPs on behalf of British cancer patients to have better access to precision radiotherapy, an effective form of cancer treatment which targets it in exactly the right place, while avoiding collateral damage to surrounding tissue.

Cancer Treatment Expert

Karol values treatment that does not overwhelm patients’ lives. Through his work at Hammersmith Hospital he helped to build a new Cancer Centre with enhanced patient day-care facilities. As Chairman of the “Help Hammer Cancer” campaign, he helped to raise £8 million – with a personal donation from the Queen – towards the construction of the new centre. He has introduced personalised supportive care strategies such as counselling and promoted greater transparency between doctor and patient. And at CPUK he has helped to build up a network of sophisticated treatment centres with high-end technology in a friendly environment with NHS contracts.