Dr Mark Saunders is a Consultant Clinical Oncologist based at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust. His main area of interest is in running clinical trials and evaluating novel agents with associated response/toxicity biomarkers and radiology (colorectal and anal cancer and pseudomyxoma). Dr Saunders is a member of a number of National Cancer Research Network (NCRN) CRC committees and works with SchAAR to prepare material for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
Dr Saunders obtained his medical degree from Charing Cross Hospital in 1986 and followed this with further training at teaching hospitals in London. He spent five years working in general medicine before specialising in oncology, firstly at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford and later at The Christie in Manchester. During his time as an Imperial Cancer Research Fund Fellow at the Churchill Hospital, he gained a Medical Research Council (MRC) grant to fund work that led to his PhD, entitled 'The application of gene therapy to selectively enhance tumor cell kill by bioreductive drugs', which he completed in 1999.
He received the Karol Sicher Research Fellowship, awarded by the UK Royal College of Radiologists, which allowed him to spend three months working with Professor Ralph Weichselbaum at the University of Chicago. He became a consultant at The Christie in 1999.
He also chairs or is a member of a number of Trial Management Groups (TMGs) and Data Monitoring Committees (DMCs). Dr Saunders is a member of number of NCRN and CRUK committees and chairs the Northern Cancer Drug Fund (CDF) committee. He is also an adviser to the charity, Beating Bowel Cancer.
Diseases, Medical Tests and Treatments
- Chemotherapy
- Immunotherapy
- Radiotherapy
- Bowel Cancer
- Colorectal Cancer
- Gastro-intestinal Cancers
- Stomach Cancer