Summary
Professor Pat Price is an academic clinical oncologist specialising in PET based molecular imaging, advanced radiotherapy techniques, translational research in oncology and medical legal issues in cancer. She is currently active in enhancing the uses of radiotherapy in cancer treatment both within the UK with advocacy through her Chairmanship of the charity Radiotherapy UK and its secretariat of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Radiotherapy (APPG-RT) and internationally through her role in establishing a Global Coalition for Radiotherapy.
Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
Professor Price pioneered the use of PET molecular imaging for micro-dosing pharmacokinetic and pharmacokinetic studies of new cancer agents and developed one of the best insights into the potential of the application of this technology for oncology drug development. Professor Price established the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Functional Imaging group, developing strategic links between oncologists and imagers and guidelines for PET in clinical trials, raising more than £20M in funding and co-founded the PET based Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre with Professor Terry Jones at the University of Manchester.
Now, in collaboration with the University of California, Davis, Professor Price is advising on the projected oncology and other clinical research applications of the World’s first Total Body PET Scanner-EXPLORER Total-body imaging: Transforming the role of positron emission tomography. She was the clinical lead on the world's first study of in vivo PET study trafficking of T cells in Covid recovered patients and is now developing a radiation/immunotherapy based PET programme. Through the PET Research Advisory Company, she provides advice to organisations on current and projected future investments in PET.
Cancer Radiotherapy
She established the first Academic Department of Radiation Oncology at the Christie Hospital, University of Manchester in 2000, and in 2005 she founded the UK Academic Clinical Oncology and Radiobiology Research Network (ACORRN). This was re-launched in 2010 as the charity Action Radiotherapy, rebranding as Radiotherapy UK in 2021. It is the UK's only charity dedicated to improving radiotherapy treatment. She is Chair of the Trustees and the charity provides the secretariat for the UK government APPG for radiotherapy APPG | All Party Parliamentary Group for Radiotherapy. She also founded the Radiotherapy4Life campaign which was launched at a parliamentary event in February 2019 to fight for a world-class radiotherapy service in the UK, this campaign is supported by a coalition of UK stakeholders.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Professor Price co-founded the Global Coalition for Radiotherapy (GCR). Initially, this provided an international focus on sharing the challenges and opportunities facing radiotherapy delivery during the radical disruption of cancer services worldwide caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and has resulted in a group of multidisciplinary international radiotherapy professionals, industry and the wider cancer community collaborating to find short- and long-term solutions for patients during in the Covid-19 emergency and continuing through the recovery. A GCR task force has supported radiotherapy in Ukraine and advised the WHO on a post war recovery programme. Currently the GCR is working on a radiotherapy essentials document for implementation within national cancer control plans.
In July 2020, Professor Price co-founded the #CatchupWithCancer Campaign to urge the Government to catch up with the cancer backlog caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. A petition with over 377,000 signatories was delivered to 10 Downing Street and the campaign has received almost weekly press coverage as well as being featured on BBC Panorama and Newsnight.
In 2021 Professor Price was invited to join the Imperial College High Energy Physics department research programme LhARA (Laser-hybrid Accelerator for Radiobiological Applications) to support the radiation biology and clinical direction. She has been appointed Programme manager for clinical and industry impact. LhARA | Research groups | Imperial College London is a revolutionary, internationally leading system that uses a laser to produce high energy protons and ions. If successful this new technique will stimulate new research directions in fundamental physics, material science and radiotherapy enhanced immune therapy.
Teaching and research activities
Professor Price has trained 22 clinical research fellows in experimental medicine to research degree level (including 8 international awards). She lectures to the legal community and NHSLA on oncology aspects of litigation. She is the co-editor of the standard UK oncology textbook 'Treatment of Cancer', now in its 8th edition. Professor Price has more than 400 scientific publications and an H- index of 63.
