Submitted by Hannah Chang on Thu, 12/10/2023 - 10:35
Congratulations to Professor Peter Sasieni, Academic Director of the Kings Clinical Trials Unit at King's College London, who was presented with the 2023 Don Listwin award last night at the Early Detection of Cancer conference dinner. The award recognises outstanding contribution to cancer early detection.
Peter’s long career in cervical cancer prevention started with his first post-doctoral position at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, looking at ways to optimise cervical cancer screening. He then looked at the potential for HPV testing to improve cervical cancer screening, followed by researching HPV vaccination as a means of cervical cancer prevention. The first HPV vaccinations were administered in 2006, and Peter was the lead author of the 2021 paper* showing that the implementation of HPV vaccination has led to a dramatic reduction in cervical cancer incidence.
Peter has also been working with Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald on the BEST trials which have assessed the use of the Cytosponge “sponge on a string” device as a means of early detection and prevention of oesophageal cancer and are now exploring its implementation as a screening test for people on long-term medication for heart-burn symptoms, a risk factor for Barrett’s oesophagus, a potential precursor to oesophageal cancer.
Peter’s award is richly deserved and we offer him our warmest congratulations.
*Falcaro, Milena, Alejandra Castañon, Busani Ndlela, Marta Checchi, Kate Soldan, Jamie Lopez-Bernal, Lucy Elliss-Brookes, and Peter Sasieni. "The effects of the national HPV vaccination programme in England, UK, on cervical cancer and grade 3 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia incidence: a register-based observational study." The Lancet 398, no. 10316 (2021): 2084-2092.