Dr Mark Saunders, MBBS, MRCP, FRCR, PhD, received his medical degree from Charing Cross Hospital, London, UK, in 1986 and followed this with further training at teaching hospitals in London. He spent 5 years working in general medicine before specialising in oncology, first at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford and later at The Christie in Manchester. During his time as an Imperial Cancer Research Fund Fellow at the Churchill Hospital, Dr Saunders gained a Medical Research Council (MRC) grant to fund work that led to his PhD, entitled “The application of gene therapy to selectively enhance tumor cell kill by bioreductive drugs”, which he completed in 1999. He was the recipient of the Karol Sicher Research Fellowship, awarded by the UK Royal College of Radiologists, which allowed him to spend 3 months working with Professor Ralph Weichselbaum at the University of Chicago. He was made a consultant at The Christie in 1999.

His main area of interest is running clinical trials evaluating novel agents with associated response / toxicity biomarkers and radiology (colorectal cancer, anal cancer, and pseudomyxoma). He has written a series of protocols for clinical trials that have been funded, completed and published. He also chairs or is a member of a number of Trial Management Groups (TMGs) and Data Monitoring Committees (DMCs). Dr Saunders is a member of number of NCRN and CRUK committees and chairs the Northern Cancer Drug Fund (CDF) committee. He is also an advisor to Beating Bowel Cancer, a charity dedicated to raising awareness of bowel cancer, improving the quality of life of those affected and, ultimately, reducing deaths from bowel cancer.