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Professor Malcolm Mason is head of the Oncology and Palliative Medicine Section at the School of Medicine. Based at Velindre Hospital, he is also Director of the Wales Cancer Bank. Established in 2003, the Bank is recognised as one of the foremost of its kind worldwide, and has revolutionised opportunities for cancer research, collecting blood and tissue samples from thousands of people in Wales either suffering from cancer or with a potential cancer diagnosis. The Bank is a collaboration involving Cardiff University, the Welsh Assembly Government, the NHS and Cancer Research Wales.

Professor Mason’s own group has carried out a great deal of research into prostate cancer. Through studies which he has led via the MRC, it has been shown that survival rates in men with advanced prostate cancer improve when they are given drugs that preserve bone mass, and more recently that radiotherapy added to hormone therapy reduced deaths from prostate cancer by nearly half in patients with locally advanced disease.

Non-malignant prostate stem cells are known to exist. From their characteristics, it is expected that malignant prostate cancer stem cells will be resistant to hormone treatment and possibly also to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Professor Mason said: “We need to know more about prostate cancer stem cells. They could offer new ways to tackle prostate cancer or, at the very least, tell us more about what happens when present treatments fail. We are excited about the opportunities for us to work with the new European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute to improve our understanding in this particular field.”

Dr Birrer is vice chancellor and director of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

Birrer completed his medical degree and doctorate of philosophy in 1982 in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Following a medical internship and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, Birrer entered the Medical Oncology Fellowship program at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. After his fellowship, Birrer was appointed senior investigator (with tenure) and established the molecular mechanism section in the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control.

In 2008, Birrer was appointed professor of medicine at the Harvard School of Medicine and assumed the position of director for both Gynecologic Medical Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Gynecologic Oncology Research Program at the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.

In 2017, he accepted the position of director of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he served as professor of medicine, pathology and OB-GYN.

Recognized nationally and internationally as an expert in gynecologic oncology, Birrer’s primary research interest is in characterizing the genomics of gynecologic cancers to improve the clinical management of these diseases. His clinical interests include ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer and cervical cancer.

Birrer has approximately 400 publications, including peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters and review articles. He served as chair and chair emeritus of the Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Program, chair of the Committee for Experimental Medicine of the Gynecologic Oncology Group, chair of the Translational Science Working Group of the Gynecologic Cancer Intergroup, and a member of the Gynecologic Cancer Steering Committee.