Further information
Professor J Meirion Thomas, Professor in Surgical Oncology & Consultant Surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital, Division of Surgery, Oncology, Reproductive Biology and Anaesthetics, Imperial College London, presents his inaugural lecture.
In the Chair: Professor Lord Ara Darzi, Professor of Surgery, Division of Surgery, Oncology, Reproductive Biology and Anaesthetics, Imperial College London.
A drinks reception will take place after the lecture in the Outpatients Department, Wallace Wing, The Royal Marsden Hospital.
Attendance is free with registration in advance: l.brown@imperial.ac.uk.
Abstract: This lecture will document a career specialising in the treatment of two rare cancers – namely sarcoma and malignant melanoma. After an unlikely start in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Uganda, followed by a flirtation with General Practice and General Medicine, there followed a sustained and intense career in Surgical Oncology. As is often the case with clinical medicine, achievements have come about by chance and by grasping opportunities rather than by design. The end result is the largest Sarcoma Unit in Europe and a battle of monumental scale on the initial management of melanoma. Along the way there are minor achievements incurred as the nascent speciality of Surgical Oncology became driven and controlled by evidence and outcomes. Recent research has emphasized the arguments against sentinel node biopsy in melanoma which is regarded as “standard of care” in the United States and some other Countries.
Biography: Thanks to the social mobility permitted by the Grammar School system, Meirion Thomas graduated from Westminster Medical School, University of London in 1969 and after pre-registration appointments he worked in Uganda for one year experiencing President Idi Amin’s coup. After a period in General Practice where he gained MRCP, he took a variety of surgical training posts gaining FRCS in 1974. His first appointment at the Royal Marsden Hospital was as lecturer in surgery where he wrote his MS thesis on a clonogenic-cell assay for melanoma. He was appointed Consultant Surgeon at Westminster Hospital in 1982 moving progressively to the Royal Marsden Hospital as Senior Lecturer to Professor Gerald Westbury in 1986. This transition culminated in full-time surgical practice at the Royal Marsden Hospital from 1999.
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