Professor Mick Peake honoured by the Irish Cancer Society for his lifelong work in cancer research

Repro Free: 06/12/2017
Professor Mick Peake, Clinical Lead for Early Diagnosis in Public Health at England’s National Cancer Registration Service was presented with the Charles Cully Memorial Medal at the Irish Cancer Society’s annual Charles Cully lecture in the GPO Dublin. The Irish Cancer Society revealed that 1 in 4 lung cancers are diagnosed in Ireland in hospital Emergency Departments. Picture Andres Poveda

Professor Mick Peake recognised for lifelong work in cancer research and care

LEICESTER, 11-Dec-2017 — /EuropaWire/ — A University of Leicester Professor and consultant at Leicester’s Hospitals has been honoured ‘for his lifelong work on earlier diagnosis and improved outcomes for lung cancer patients.’

The award by the Irish Cancer Society followed the Charles Cully Memorial Lecture which was delivered by Professor Mick Peake who is an Honorary Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University and also an honorary consultant at Leicester’s Hospitals.

The lecture recognises and awards leadership in the fields of cancer control, cancer prevention and health policy, and provides an opportunity to highlight best practice or innovation in those areas.

The Irish Cancer Society has commissioned research from the National Cancer Registry of Ireland to establish the proportion of cancers diagnosed via emergency presentation across the top ten cancers. Preliminary findings of this important research were launched at this year’s Annual Charles Cully Memorial Lecture.

Professor Peake’s lecture, ‘Towards the earlier diagnosis and improved outcomes of lung cancer patients’ focussed on:

• optimising the early diagnosis of lung cancer
• national and international statistics around survival and late diagnosis
• the experience and impact of the public awareness campaigns
• the scale and problem of emergency presentations
• efforts to promote the optimisation of the lung cancer care pathway

He said: “It was a great honour to receive The Charles Cully medal at the annual meeting of the Irish Cancer Society. I was speaking about the huge progress that we had made in the quality of care, earlier diagnosis and outcomes for lung cancer patients in the UK over the last 15 years or so. A significant amount of this came from my work leading the establishment of the Thoracic Oncology Unit in the University Hospitals of Leicester, but I have been extremely fortunate to work with a great range of clinicians and researchers over the years in which I have often only been the ‘front man’, so my thanks go out to all my colleagues over the years.

“Ireland are looking to implement their recent National Cancer Strategy 2017-2026 and I hope that the work I demonstrated in my lecture may have given food for thought as to how some of the initiatives outlined in that plan might be taken forward.”

Donal Buggy, Head of Services and Advocacy, at the Irish Cancer Society said: “We are delighted to honour Professor Peake with the Charles Cully Medal 2017, for all the work he has done championing the earlier diagnosis of lung cancer.

“He has worked tirelessly on this issue throughout his career, driving the issue of lung cancer up the political agenda. Without a doubt lung cancer services in the UK would not be where they are today without Professor Mick Peake, and we are delighted he could come and share his expertise and insights with us.”

Professor Peake is the Clinical Lead for Early Diagnosis in Public Health England’s National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service, where he oversees the clinical understanding and analysis of UK-wide population data on cancer.

He is an Honorary Consultant and Professor of Respiratory Medicine in the University Hospitals of Leicester. He is also the Director of the Centre for Cancer Outcomes, University College London Hospitals (UCLH) Cancer Collaborative.

He has had a major interest in lung cancer and mesothelioma for many years. He was Clinical Lead for the National Lung Cancer Audit in the Royal College of Physicians, where he was Associate Director of the Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit for 20 years. He was National Clinical Lead for Lung Cancer and for NHS Cancer Improvement until the dissolution of the organisation in the NHS reforms. Amongst other roles he is a member of the board of trustees of the British Thoracic Oncology Group, chair of Mesothelioma UK, the National Lung Cancer Forum for Nurses and also Chairs the Clinical Advisory Group of the UK Lung Cancer Coalition.

He has been involved in the development and implementation of national cancer policy since the late 1990s. He has published widely with his major interests being in early diagnosis and improving outcomes for cancer patients by proper service configuration, supported by good clinical outcome data.

SOURCE: University of Leicester

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