About Jesus College/Our community/ People
Professor Geoff Higgins

Roles and subjects

Malcolm and Margaret Howat Associate Professor Of Clinical Oncology and Hugh Price Fellow in Clinical Oncology

Contact

geoffrey.higgins@oncology.ox.ac.uk

Academic Background

BSc(Hons), MBChB, MRCP, FRCR, DPhil

I obtained degrees in Pharmacology (1997) and medicine (2000) from the University of Edinburgh. I then undertook postgraduate training in Clinical Oncology in Edinburgh and Oxford, prior to undertaking radiation biology research leading to a DPhil in 2010. I subsequently established my own research group with Clinician Scientist and Advanced Clinician Scientist Fellowship funding from Cancer Research UK.

I am the Clinical Director of the CRUK Oxford “RadNet” centre and joint-lead investigator of CRUK’s National Cancer Imaging Translational Accelerator. I also work as an Honorary Consultant Clinical Oncologist specialising in the treatment of lung cancer.

Undergraduate Teaching

My laboratory supports medical student FHS placements.

Postgraduate Teaching

I supervise clinical and laboratory projects at both MRes and DPhil level and am a lecturer, module lead and examiner on the Radiation Oncology and Biology MSc.

Research Interests

I am a Clinician Scientist in Clinical Oncology undertaking both laboratory and clinical research. I run a research laboratory focused on improving the efficacy of radiotherapy by developing treatments that specifically make tumour cells more sensitive to radiotherapy. The ultimate aim of this work is to develop treatments to improve the ability of radiotherapy to cure patients without increasing side-effects.

Our work often involves developing new drug treatments in combination with either commercial partners or academic collaborators within the University of Oxford.

In the clinic, I treat lung cancer patients with radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy. I lead clinical trials that translate our most promising laboratory findings into patient studies.

I have significant experience in undertaking clinical trials relevant to radiotherapy and am the Clinical Director of the CRUK Oxford RadNet centre. My clinical trials typically incorporate novel functional imaging of the tumour microenvironment (e.g. perfusion CT, OE-MRI & hypoxia PET-CT) and I am joint-lead investigator of the “National Cancer Imaging Translational Accelerator” (NCITA) award from CRUK.

Links

See also Professor Higgins’s profile on the Department of Oncology website.