About the Award: The distinguished Hamilton Fairley Award was established in 1998 to commemorate one of the founding fathers of medical oncology in Europe and is presented to medical oncologists that are internationally recognised for their achievements in cancer, science and clinical/laboratory research.

Recipient: Roger Stupp

Roger Stupp, M.D is Professor at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and chairman and director of the Department of Oncology at the University Hospital Zurich and the Zurich Cancer Centre. He currently serves as the President of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), and as a member of the Educational or Scientific Committees for the CNS tracks of ESMO and ASCO. He is a section editor for the European Journal of Cancer, and member of the Editorial Board of several oncology journals.

Dr Stupp  is an active and dedicated clinical and translational researcher. His special clinical interests include the multimodality management of brain tumors, head and neck and lung cancers, new drug development and the association of chemotherapy and radiation.  He is closely involved in bringing new antiangiogenic and biological treatments to the clinic.

Roger has been lead investigator for several EORTC-sponsored large phase III trials. Companion studies of the landmark trial that led to the current standard of care of temozolomide chemotherapy in conjunction with radiotherapy in newly diagnosed glioblastoma enabled establishment of MGMT gene promoter methylation as the most important predictive marker. Recent work includes the association of the integrin inhibitor cilengitide in addition to chemoradiotherapy, and identification of molecular markers and signatures in low-grade glioma. These large phase III trial all integrate a comprehensive translational research programme to the clinical questions, allowing for better understanding of the diseases and identification of novel treatment targets.

In lung cancer, Roger Stupp together with his colleagues from the Swiss Group of Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK) reported on curative-intent tri-modality therapy including neoadjuvant chemo- and radiotherapy before definitive surgery in stage III NSCLC.