Professor Adrian Harris is a preeminent figure in cancer research with a distinguished career spanning over five decades of groundbreaking contributions to medical oncology. He holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Oxford, where he served as the Cancer Research UK Professor of Medical Oncology since his appointment in 1988, and maintains his affiliation as a Professorial Fellow of St Hugh's College. Professor Harris earned his bachelor's degree in Medicine and Surgery with first-class honors in Biochemistry from Liverpool University in 1973 before completing his DPhil at Oxford University, where he investigated mechanisms of resistance to anti-cancer drugs from 1975 to 1978. His early career included significant work at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, where he developed expertise in endocrine therapy for breast cancer and contributed to the development of early aromatase inhibitors under Professor Ian Smith, followed by his appointment as Professor of Clinical Oncology at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1981.
Professor Harris has made seminal contributions to understanding tumor angiogenesis, hypoxia biology, and the metabolic response to hypoxia as key targets for anti-cancer therapy, establishing foundational knowledge that has shaped modern approaches to cancer treatment. His laboratory research has significantly advanced the field of breast cancer therapeutics, particularly through his early work on endocrine therapy and the development of aromatase inhibitors that have become standard treatments worldwide. With an extraordinary publication record exceeding 500 articles that have garnered over 170,000 citations, he maintains an impressive Google Scholar h-index of 200, earning recognition as a 'Highly Cited Researcher' ranking among the top 1% most cited for his subject field between 2002 and 2012. His leadership as Director of the Cancer Research UK Molecular Oncology Laboratories at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine until 2017 fostered numerous breakthroughs in understanding how tumor cells adapt to low oxygen conditions and how these pathways can be therapeutically targeted.
Beyond his research contributions, Professor Harris has profoundly influenced the global cancer research community through his twenty-year tenure as Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Cancer until 2022 and his service on the Editorial Board of Cancer Cell, shaping the dissemination of critical cancer research findings worldwide. As a Senior Investigator at the National Institute of Health Research and a founder Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, he has played a pivotal role in establishing research priorities and mentoring generations of oncology researchers. His leadership extended to serving as Chairman of the Science Strategy Committee for Breast Cancer NOW, where he helped direct research funding toward the most promising therapeutic approaches. Currently, Professor Harris continues to advance cancer therapeutics through his ongoing investigations into the metabolic response to hypoxia, with his laboratory actively testing novel miniSimCells technology in complex 3D models and exploring combination therapies that may revolutionize targeted tumor treatment.
