Cancer Research UK appoints Professor Pamela Kearns as new Trustee

Today, Cancer Research UK announced the appointment of Professor Pamela Kearns as a Trustee and Member. 

Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Chair of Cancer Research UK, said: “I’m very happy to welcome Pam to our Governing Council. She brings an exceptional knowledge of cancer research through her broad experience and commitment to her work in the field. I look forward to working with her more closely.” 

Meet the new Trustee

Professor Pamela Kearns has a great wealth of experience and expertise in cancer research. 

She is the chair of clinical paediatric oncology at the University of Birmingham and an honorary consultant paediatric oncologist at Birmingham Women and Children’s Hospital, as well as the director of the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences and director of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU).  

As director of CRCTU, Professor Kearns leads the research strategy for one of UK’s largest cancer trials units, delivering a trials portfolio of more than 100 multi-centre and international cancer trials for a wide range of cancers occurring in children, young people and adults. Clinical trials units such as the CRCTU are essential in helping to turn research in the lab into real treatments that can save lives.

Professor Kearns was elected president of the European Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP Europe) in 2019, having been a board member since 2013. She also holds several European roles including executive board member of the academic consortium Innovative Therapeutics in Childhood Cancer (ITCC), Chair of ITCC’s European sponsor institutions committee and is a steering committee member of the international multi-stakeholder platform ACCELERATE. 

Professor Kearns was a senior clinical advisor to Cancer Research UK from 2015 to 2020 and is a trustee of a Child of Mine, a charity dedicated to supporting bereaved parents.

Her own research interests are focussed on drug development and innovation of design and delivery of clinical trials for childhood cancers. 

All Trustee roles at Cancer Research UK are unremunerated.