Professor Janet Brown

BMedSci, MB BS, MSc, MD, FRCP

Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine and Population Health

Chair in Medical Oncology

Professor of Translational Medical Oncology

j.e.brown@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 226 5007

Full contact details

Professor Janet Brown
Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine and Population Health
Weston Park Hospital
Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2SJ
Profile

For enquiries please contact - ClinMed-Operational@sheffield.ac.uk

Professor Janet Brown was appointed to a Chair in Translational Medical Oncology in the University of Sheffield, UK and as Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology at the Sheffield NHS Foundation Trust in 2012. She also holds a Visiting Professorship in Medical Oncology at the University of Leeds, UK.

After graduating in Medicine from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and training in Oncology in Newcastle, Christie Hospital Manchester and Weston Park Hospital, Sheffield, she obtained her MD research degree from University of Sheffield and was appointed Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology at the University of Leeds in 2006. Her specialist areas of clinical practice are breast, prostate and renal cancers.

Amongst a range of awards, she gained the American Society for Clinical Oncology Pain Merit Award in 2003 and the UK McElwain Research Prize for Medical Oncology in 2005. In 2008, she won a Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist Fellowship for studies in bone oncology, which she held until 2014. She has gained international clinical experience, including study visits to Massachusetts General Hospital/ Harvard Medical School and Princess Margaret’s Hospital in Toronto.

Professor Brown is currently Head of Clinical Oncology in Sheffield which, with the Cancer Clinical Trials Centre, encompasses responsibility for around 100 clinical and scientific researchers and associated funding. She is also Deputy Director (and Oncology Lead) of the Mellanby Centre for Musculoskeletal Research.

Other current roles include her leadership of the £4.5 million Yorkshire Cancer Research Senior Fellowships Award for Sheffield. She is Translational Lead for the Sheffield Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (funded by Cancer Research UK), the Sheffield Clinical Academic Training Lead for Oncology and the Yorkshire Network Research lead for urological cancer.

Research interests

Prof Brown has around 150 published, peer-reviewed research papers and 230 published abstracts. She has had more than 50 successful grant applications in the last 5 years and has recent and current research funding totalling over £15 million, with more than £10 million as Principal Investigator, from Cancer Research UK, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Yorkshire Cancer Research, Breast Cancer Campaign, Prostate Cancer UK, Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity and other bodies. She is leading on an Impact case for REF 2021.

As an academic leader and clinician-scientist, Prof Brown engages in both clinical and laboratory research, which is internationally recognised, with publications in Lancet, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Nature Clinical Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, Annals of Oncology Breast Cancer Research and Treatment and other journals. She leads the Clinical Bone Oncology and Biomarkers Group in the University of Sheffield, which has a particular focus on the impact of cancer on the skeleton in patients with breast, prostate and renal cancer. Recent research includes the use of biomarkers in established bone metastasis to aid patient management and studies of the negative impact of cancer treatments on bone health. One of the main objectives of her current clinical and laboratory work is to develop novel prognostic and predictive biomarkers for clinical use in patients with early cancer to help in prevention or delay of cancer metastasis to bone, after which disease is incurable, including new developments with exosomes and microRNAs. Prof Brown also runs a range of clinical studies to develop innovative therapeutic approaches in breast, renal and prostate cancer eg combining novel agents such as the radiopharmaceutical Radium-223 with PD1 inhibitors. As Chief Investigator, she currently leads a large UK-wide, 40 centre, clinical trial (STAR) funded by NIHR, to determine whether treatment breaks in patients with renal cancer receiving targeted therapies, can reduce toxicity and have health economic benefits, without loss in efficacy. She is also Chief Investigator on two multi-site clinical studies assessing the potential of therapies combining Radium-223 with other anti-cancer agents in breast cancer.

Publications

Show: Featured publications All publications

Journal articles

Chapters

  • Coleman RE, Brown J & Holen I (2020) Bone Metastases, Abeloff's Clinical Oncology (pp. 809-830.e3). Elsevier RIS download Bibtex download

Reports

  • Brown J (2022) Expert Panel: evaluation of the Government’s commitments in the area of cancer services in England View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download

All publications

Journal articles

Chapters

Conference proceedings papers

Reports

  • Brown J (2023) Implementing frailty assessment and management in oncology services RIS download Bibtex download
  • Brown J (2022) Expert Panel: evaluation of the Government’s commitments in the area of cancer services in England View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download

Other

Preprints

Research group

Associated Staff

  • Caroline Potts - YCR Support
  • Dr Steven Wood, Senior Research Associate
  • Maria Oliva, Research Assistant
  • Ana Lopez, Research Assistant
  • Dr Stella D'Oronzo, Visiting Clinical Fellow, Italy
  • Dr Azeez Salawu, Clinical Academic Fellow
  • Dr Catherine Handforth, Clinical Research Fellow
  • Dr Amy Kwan, Clinical Research Fellow
  • Dr Emma Rathbone, CRUK Clinical Research Fellow
  • Dr Elisavet Theodoulou, Clinical Research Fellow
  • Dr Rebecca Andrews, Clinical Research Fellow (Dr Andrew Chantry, main Clinical Supervisor)
  • Dr Amy Adlard, BCN Postdoctoral Fellow (in collaboration with Prof Claire Lewis)
  • Dr Ming Want, BCN Postdoctoral Fellow (in collaboration with Prof Claire Lewis)
  • Dr Xuan Pu, PCUK Postdoctoral Fellow (in collaboration with Prof Claire Lewis)
  • Dr Suruchi Mittal, BCN Postdoctoral Fellow (in collaboration with Prof Ingunn Holen)
  • Hind Naffadi, PhD Student (in collaboration with Prof Tim Skerry)
  • Andrew Hall, Hallam University Biochemistry Placement Student
Teaching activities

I have been engaged in many aspects of medical teaching including examining at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, being personal tutor for 10 medical students, educational supervisor for 4 SpRs, 2 Clinical Lecturers, 4 SHOs and 2 biological science sandwich students and supervised alone or jointly 8 staff/students (3 postgraduate), including two current clinical fellow PhD students.

Professional activities and memberships

Invited oral presentations at many symposia/conferences in UK and internationally
Member of NCRI Prostate Clinical Studies Group, Advanced Cancer Sub-Group 2009 - 2013
Member of NCRI Renal Cancer Clinical Studies Group 2010-present
Member of NCRI Breast Cancer Clinical Studies Group 2015-present
Chair, National Prostate Cancer Bone Health Guidelines Group 2011-present
Service on various UK and global company advisory boards
NICE expert advisor for adoption of new renal cancer drug 2012-2014 and for appraisal of Tumour Profiling Tests for Early Breast Cancer 2017
EMEA expert advisor for regulatory approval of bone-targeted drug 2011-2012