Dr Douglas Brand

Dr Douglas Brand is a Consultant Clinical Oncologist, specialising in gastrointestinal cancers. He specialises in non-surgical treatments (radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy) for cancers of the oesophagus, stomach, liver, bile duct system, pancreas, colon, rectum and anal canal. He qualified in medicine from Cambridge University medical school with distinction. His clinical and research training in Clinical Oncology occurred at several major UK cancer centres: The Christie Hospital (Manchester), The Royal Marsden Hospital and University College Hospital.

Dr Brand has particular interest in combined modality treatments, such as total neoadjuvant therapies (combining chemotherapy and radiotherapy) for rectal cancer; he is the UCLH radiotherapy lead for the ARTEMIS study examining this approach. He has expertise in stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT, sometimes termed SABR) a form of high dose, precision targeted radiotherapy used in the treatment of pancreas and liver cancers, along with limited areas of spread in those with metastatic cancer. He also specialises in proton beam therapy, a form of radiotherapy that can better spare normal tissues and which has seen increasing use for oesophageal and liver cancers.

From a research perspective, he undertook a Masters degree at The Christie Hospital (Manchester), investigating novel radiotherapy delivery techniques. He then undertook a PhD at the Institute of Cancer Research investigating the use of machine learning methods in the prediction of cancer treatment outcomes. Following that he completed his training as a Clinical Lecturer at University College London investigating AI prediction of cancer outcomes. He continues to have a research interest in proton beam therapy and the prediction of cancer outcomes using machine learning. He is the UCLH principle investigator for the PROTIEUS oesophageal proton beam radiotherapy study.