Tom is a Consultant Oncologist in Velindre Cancer Centre, specialising in Upper GI cancer since 2008. As clinical lead for the Wales Cancer Network Tom has lead the development of the Cancer Delivery Plans 2016-20 and 22-25 and the Single Cancer Pathway which looks to transform patient pathways from referral, through diagnosis to treatment.

He is also helping to lead the development of a new Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff due to open 2025.

Tom is a leader in Upper GI Oesophageal Chemo-radiotherapy Research, Service and Development in the UK. He is Chief Investigator to the series of UK Multi-centre SCOPE trials (SCOPE1, NeoSCOPE and SCOPE2) and was the recent Chair of the NCRI OG Cancer Subgroup and Oncology Lead for the UK National Oesophago-Gastric Cancer Audit.

Tom has recently been recognised for his service to cancer services in Wales and the UK with the award of an honorary Professorship by Cardiff University and an OBE in the New Year’s Honours list in 2019 and is now the National Clinical Director of Cancer for Wales.

Tom has been one of the National clinical leads that has led to the establishment of the UK and Ireland Oesophago-gastric Group (UKIOG).

Elizabeth (Lizzy) Smyth graduated from University College Dublin, Ireland in 2002. She commenced her oncology training in Dublin, Ireland and in 2009 she was awarded a fellowship from the Irish Society of Medical Oncology to train at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Centre, New York. Following this, she was awarded the Irish Health Service Executive Richard Steevenson Scholarship to complete her training at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. She completed an MSc in Clinical Trials in 2011 (University of London) and was awarded an MD(Res) from the Institute of Cancer Research in 2018.

Dr. Smyth works as a consultant medical oncologist in upper GI oncology at Oxford University NHS Foundation trust with a research focus in oesophagogastric cancer. Her interests are clinical trials and translational research, and she has worked on trial design and management of national and international investigator initiated trials.

Dr. Smyth has published more than 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts in her field. She is a member of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Upper GI Faculty, and is the Chair of the Guidelines Committee and member of the ESMO Council. She has previously served as the Chair of the ESMO OncologyPRO Working Group, Chair of the ESMO National Societies Committee and was Subject Editor for the most recent ESMO Gastric Cancer and Oesophageal Cancer Guidelines. Dr. Smyth is the current Chair of the EORTC GI Trials Group (2024-2027). In 2022, Dr. Smyth was a founding member of the UK & Ireland Oesophagogastric Cancer Group (UKIOG) and is a trustee of the UKIOG Charity. She is committed to furthering national and international collaboration in GI trials research and improving outcomes for patients with gastrointestinal cancer.”

Christopher Peters went to medical school in Leeds and after completing basic surgical training moved to Cambridge to carry out a PhD with Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald. During his PhD he developed a four gene signature to predict outcome in oesophageal adenocarcinoma and jointly set up the OCCAMS collaboration which went on to be selected to run the International Cancer Genome Consortium’s Whole Genome sequencing project in oesophageal adenocarcinoma.

After moving to London to complete his higher surgical training he was appointed as a Clinical Senior Lecturer and Consultant Upper GI surgeon at Imperial College London with a specialist interest in Biomarkers and understanding how new technologies are adopted into health care systems. He is the joint lead for Gastric Cancer for the NIHR funded PICCOS trial of Pressurised Intraperitoneal Aerosolised Chemotherapy.

Andrew Davies is a Consultant Upper GI Surgeon at Guy’s & St Thomas’ and a Reader in Surgery at King’s College London. His clinical interests include minimally invasive surgery for both malignant and benign UGI surgery and the role of pre-habilitation and enhanced recovery in improving outcomes after major surgery. At a research level he is a strong advocate of collaborative working and has led a number of national and international consensus studies in the fields of pre-habilitation and symptom management after UGI cancer surgery (RESTORE and EUROSTAR studies). He sits on the education committee of the ESDE and the editorial board of the British Journal of Surgery.

Kieran Foley is a Consultant Radiologist with a specialist interest in oesophagogastric cancer. Kieran works between the Royal Glamorgan Hospital and Velindre Cancer Centre and is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at Cardiff University. Kieran is co-CI of the NIHR-funded VALUE study, a prospective, observational cohort study investigating the current role of EUS in oesophageal cancer, and Radiology Lead for the UKIOG. He is past Research Officer for the British Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (BSGAR) and is also Research Lead at the National Imaging Academy Wales (NIAW).

Consultant Gastroenterologist, Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust, West Midlands, and Honorary Professor, University of Birmingham. National Post Endoscopy Upper GI Cancer root cause analysis project lead. BSG Upper GI Endoscopy Quality Improvement Programme lead. Guidelines lead BSG endoscopy committee. National Oesophago-Gastric Cancer Audit clinical lead and National Pancreatic Cancer Audit clinical lead. National Endoscopy Database Research Lead. Lead regional oesophageal manometry and reflux monitoring service. Screening Centre Director Sandwell and West Birmingham Bowel Cancer Screening Centre. Current research interests in health informatics in gastroenterology, post endoscopy cancer and endoscopy quality.

Tim Underwood is Professor of Gastrointestinal Surgery and co-lead of the Innovation for Translation Research Group (ITRG), Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, UK. His team focus on understanding the clinical and molecular determinants of response to therapy in a range of solid tumours, and the development of new treatments that target the tumour microenvironment, including immunotherapy.
Tim works nationally on behalf AUGIS and the Royal College of Surgeons of England as Surgical Specialty Lead for oesophageal cancer for the UK and is Honorary Secretary of the Surgical Research Society.

Carly Biscoe is the Business Support Officer for UKIOG.
Since 2015 she has been Personal Assistant to Professor Tom Crosby, one of the charity Trustees and National Cancer Director for Wales. From 2005 to 2022 she worked as a Medical Secretary for the Upper GI Team in Velindre Cancer Centre.
She also currently works as a Medical Staffing Officer for Velindre Cancer Centre.
She is also FRCR Course Administrator for the Cardiff FRCR course and the Cardiff International Courses which currently run in Hong Kong and India and are soon to expand to include another international course.

James Gossage is a Consultant General and Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
He is surgical lead for the Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Service at St Thomas’ Hospital and previous chair of the Regional Cancer network. He has a Hunterian Professorship from the Royal College of Surgeons and is currently an Associate Professor at King’s College, London.
He was recently the National Lead for Oesophagogastric Cancer Surgery on the AUGIS (Association for Upper GI Surgeons) Council and is now a member of the executive committee and Honorary Treasurer. He is Surgical Lead on the National Audit Committee (NOGCA), based in the Clinical Effectiveness Unit at the Royal College of Surgeons. The audit monitors outcomes from units performing cancer surgery in England and Wales. His interests are in improving national standards of care and establishing guidance for best surgical practice.

Mr Javed Sultan was trained in Newcastle upon Tyne by Professor Griffin OBE and the team till 2013. During this time he was awarded the Gold Medal for the Intercollegiate Speciality Examination in General Surgery. He developed a passion for prehabilitation and enhanced recovery, following 5 years at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, an internationally recognised unit. Then he moved to the Salford Royal hospital with a large centralised OG service covering 3.2 million. Subsequently he became Unit Clinical Lead, GM Cancer Lead for OG cancer. Last year he was appointed as OG Lead for the Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons (AUGIS) and as National Clinical Lead for upper GI cancer by NHS England. Javed’s aims are to improve the complex 62-day OG pathway, reduce treatment variations within the UK and improve outcomes.
Leadership is clearly a passion of his, but he also has an academic interest in prehabilitation. He is currently leading a research programme with Manchester Metropolitan University and Southampton. This is investigating the mechanistic effects of resistance and hypoxic altitude training on sarcopenia, muscle, function, mitochondria and the tumour microenvironment in OG cancer. He has been awarded a grant of £250K to fund a feasibility randomised controlled trial investigating the different exercise regimes.
He has been appointed recently as an Honorary Clinical Chair by the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC).

Ms Hollie Clements is a General Surgery Registrar in the North West of England. She is currently out of programme undertaking a period of postgraduate research leading to a PhD under Professor Russell Petty at University of Dundee. Her primary research interest is in optimising perioperative management of oesophagogastric malignancy. Hollie is the research and audit lead of Roux Group (Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery of Great Britain and Ireland Trainees).

Will Bleaney is an NIHR academic clinical fellow and specialty registrar in clinical oncology at Christie Hospital in Manchester, UK. Following undergraduate training in biological sciences and medicine at the Universities of Oxford and Liverpool he completed PhD studies through a CRUK Clinical Research Training Fellowship in Manchester. Here he investigated the molecular biology of oesophago-gastric adenocarcinoma. His other national roles include sitting on the clinical oncology academic committee of the Royal College of Radiologists and his keen interest in education has led to Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.