https://www.erasmusmc.nl/

Professor Harry de Koning, MD, PhD

• Principal Investigator of the European 4-IN-THE-LUNG-RUN trial, as well as for the NELSON trial and ROBINSCA trial
• Professor of Public Health & screening evaluation at the Department of Public Health at Erasmus MC
• Member of the Cancer Intervention and Screening Network (CISNET) group

Carlijn van der Aalst, PhD

• Assistant Professor/ Coordinator 4-IN-THE-LUNG-RUN, as well as for the NELSON trial and ROBINSCA trial
• Assistant Professor for the department of Public Health at the Erasmus MC
• Member of the Cancer Intervention and Screening Network (CISNET) group

Kevin ten Haaf, PhD

• Modeller/statistician for Erasmus MC
• Member of the Cancer Intervention and Screening Network (CISNET) group and NELSON research group

Jeanine Roeters van Lennep, MD, PhD

• Internist vascular medicine at Erasmus MC
• Board member of the Dutch Society of Gender and Health and currently leads the ACE (Academic Centre of Excellence) GESTURE

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/

Professor David R. Baldwin, PhD, MD, FRCP

• Consultant respiratory physician and honorary professor of medicine at the Nottingham University Hospitals
• Lead respiratory physician on the UKLS study, chair of the lung Cancer Clinical Reference Group for NHS England (National Lead)

Rachael L. Murray, PhD

• Associate Professor of Health Policy at the University of Nottingham/UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies
• Currently working with the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine and the American Thoracic Society Clinical Practice Guideline working group on guidance and guidelines

Manpreet Bains, PhD

• Assistant professor in Qualitative and Mixed Methods Health Research at the University of Nottingham
• Jointly coordinates the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies’ (UKCTAS) tobacco-related public involvement activity

Professor Sarah A. Lewis, PhD

• Professor of Medical Statistics at the University of Nottingham
• currently on the Cancer Research UK Tobacco Advisory Group funding panel

Professor Richard Hubbard, MD, PhD, FRCP

• Professor of Respiratory Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham since 2006
• Academic lead for the UK National Lung Cancer Audit since 2015

https://www.i-dna.org

Professor Matthijs Oudkerk, MD, PhD

• Principal Investigator on Radiology/imaging and data acquisition of the European 4-IN-THE-LUNG-RUN trial
• Chief Scientific Officer of the Institute for Diagnostic Accuracy- iDNA (formerly Medical Director of the Center of Medical Imaging North East Netherlands , NWO research Center of Exellence)
• Professor of Radiology at the University of Groningen
• Principal investigator for Radiology of the NELSON study

Erik Jippes, PhD, MBA

• Project management and part of the management team of the European 4-IN-THE-LUNG-RUN trial
• Managing Director of the Institute for Diagnostic Accuracy- iDNA (formerly Managing Director of the Center of Medical Imaging North East Netherlands , NWO research Center of Exellence)

https://www.dkfz.de/en/index.html

Professor Rudolf Kaaks, PhD

• Professor (Chair, Cancer Epidemiology) at the University of Heidelberg
• Head of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

Professor Stefan Delorme, MD

• Co-PI of the ongoing German Lung Cancer Screening trial (LUSI)
• Chairman of the German Committee on Radiation Protection in Medicine

http://ico.gencat.cat/en/inici/index.html

Professor Josep Alfons Espinàs, MD, PhD

• Professor of the Master of Public Health UPF-UAB
• Coordinator of the Office of Cancer Screening

Josep M. Borràs, MD, PhD

• Director and CEO of the Comprehensive Cancer Centre
• Director of the Catalonian Cancer Control Plan

Ernest Nadal, MD, PhD

• Oncologist and lead of the Clinical Research group in Solid Tumours (CReST) within the IDIBELL

Belen del Rio, MD, PhD

• Radiologist in the Chest Radiology Department at Bellvitge University Hospital

Professor Susana Padrones, MD, PhD

• Pulmonologist at Bellvitge University Hospital
• Coordinator of the Lung Function Unit

https://www.gustaveroussy.fr/en

Dr. Corinne Balleyguier, MD, PhD

• Head of medical imaging department and head of diagnostic imaging unit at Gustave Roussy
• Senior radiologist at Gustave Roussy

https://www.uclh.nhs.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

Professor dr. Sam Janes, MD, PhD

• Head of UCL Respiratory
• Member of several scientific and granting committees including CRUK, British Thoracic Oncology Group and the NICE interventional procedures panel

https://www.istitutotumori.mi.it/

Professor Ugo Pastorino, MD, PhD

• Director of the Thoracic Surgery Division at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milan since 2003
• Presently responsible of three prospective trials on lung cancer screening with LDCT and circulating biomarkers

Dr. Gabriella Sozzi, MD, PhD

• Head of the Tumor Genomics Unit at Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori

https://www.ruhrlandklinik.de/

Professor Clemens Aigner, MD, PhD, MBA

• Professor of Thoracic Surgery and at University Medicine Essen – Ruhrlandklinik
• Head of the Department of Thoracic Surgery and Surgical Endoscopy at University Medicine Essen – Ruhrlandklinik

Professor Michael Forsting, PhD

• Director of the Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology and Neuroradiology at Essen University Hospital

Professor Martin Schuler, MD, PhD

• Professor of oncology at the Department of Medical Oncology, University Clinic Essen

Professor Christian Taube, PhD

• Professor of pulmonology at the Ruhrlandklinik

Felix Nensa, MD, PhD

• Radiologist at the University Hospital Essen

Principal investigator 4ITLR

Professor Harry de Koning is currently deputy head of the Public Health department at Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

He was co-lead of many screening trials and related research activities, such as the ROBINSCA-trial (CVD screening), NELSON-trial (lung cancer screening), ERSPC-trial (prostate cancer screening), CISNET-modeling (breast, prostate, lung), colorectal cancer screening, screening trial for language delays, screening for child abuse, informed decision making and cost-effectiveness studies.

He holds (and has held) numerous key (scientific) positions. He is currently chair of the National Evaluation Team for Breast Cancer screening. He is chair of the International Causes of Death committee of the European Randomized Screening for Prostate Cancer trial and Secretary Data Monitoring Committee of the European Randomized Screening for Prostate Cancer trial.

Principal investigator imaging

Professor Oudkerk is professor of Radiology at the University of Groningen, Chief Scientific Officer of the Institute for Diagnostic Accuracy- iDNA (formerly of the Center of Medical Imaging ^{NORTH EAST NETHERLANDS} , NWO research Center of Exellence) and the principal investigator for Radiology of the NELSON lung cancer detection study, the Robinsca cardiovascular screening study and the ⁴ Lungrun Horizon 2020 study. Founder and past president of the European Society of Cardiac Radiology and former Chairman of Radiology departments of DDHK Erasmus MC Rotterdam and University Medical Center Groningen. Prof. Oudkerk has a broad insight into new imaging modalities, algorithms and strategies. He is ranked as one the most influential researchers in Radiology in Europe (2019). For his research work he received prestigious grants such as EU Horizon 2020, ERC advanced grant, Royal Academy of Sciences of the Netherlands (KNAW), Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST), NWO, KWF, NKB grants etc.

He is lead investigator of the NELSON lung cancer detection study, the  ROBINSCA study for coronary disease detection, NELCIN B3 study in China focusing on Lung cancer , coronary artery disease and pulmonary disease  in one imaging test. Prof. Oudkerk was invited as a member of the medical advisory board of Siemens AG Germany for development of the first continuous rotating spiral CT and has been part of this board until the development of the current volume multi-detector CT scanners pushing forward the need for higher temporal resolutions in CT scanning comparable with EBT. With his research team he initiated the field of CT coronary imaging; Prof.Oudkerk is inspiring many (inter-)national students to start their PhD research in his Institute, resulting in several PhD defenses per year.

Prof Oudkerk published more than 555 peer reviewed articles, is cited over 20,000 times with an H-index >74 (Scopus). Key publications in NEJM, Lancet, Thorax, Circulation, JACC, Eur Heart, Radiology, Lancet Oncology, etc.

Coordinator 4ITLR

Carlijn van der Aalst is Assistant Professor at the Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

She coordinates several large-scale population-based screening trials for lung cancer (NELSON and 4-IN THE-LUNG-RUN) and cardiovascular disease (ROBINSCA).

Her current work is mainly focused on 1) the overall coordination and evaluation of the screening trials and 2) estimating the impact of screening on health behaviour.

She has over 54 publications and an H-index of 19.

Work package leader recruitment

David Baldwin works as a consultant respiratory physician sub-specialising in lung cancer and mesothelioma and interventional procedures. He is Honorary Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham. He is Chair of the National Clinical Expert Group for Lung Cancer, NHS England and Clinical Director of the East Midlands Cancer Alliance. He is Chair of the Screening Prevention and Early Diagnosis Group for the National Cancer Research Institute. He has obtained research grants from a variety of charities and NIHR. His primary research interests are in CT screening and lung cancer epidemiology. He is leading the novel recruitment work package in the 4-in-the-Lung-Run project. He was lead respiratory physician on the UK CT lung cancer screening trial (UKLS).

Professor Baldwin has published over 200 papers, including three influential guidelines.  He has held the positions of Honorary Secretary of the British Thoracic Society, Clinical Lead on the NICE Lung Cancer Guideline Development Group and Chair of the Quality Standards Group on Lung Cancer. He works with Public Health England as a member of the Lung Cancer Site Specific Reference Group. He enjoys time with his family and is a keen windsurfer and advanced instructor.

Partner 4ITLR early detection screening site Ruhrlandklinik, Essen, Germany

Professor Rudolf Kaaks, PhD, obtained a PhD degree in Epidemiology at the University of Wageningen, the Netherlands, in 1994. He started his scientific working as epidemiologist at the “Preventicon” center for breast cancer screening of the University of Utrecht, Netherlands (1987-1988), then, at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Lyon (1988-2006) where he contributed to the development of the prospective European EPIC cohort. In 2001 he became head of the Hormones and Cancer Group at IARC. In 2006 Rudolf Kaaks was appointed Professor (Chair, Cancer Epidemiology) at the University of Heidelberg and head of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany. From 2009 to 2015 he was member of the Board of Scientific Directors of the German National Cohort (NaKo). From September 2015 to March 2019 he served as coordinator of the Research Program C „Cancer Risk Factors and Prevention“, at the DKFZ. Prof. Kaaks has extensive experience with setting up and conducting large-scale prospective studies, including observational cohorts as well as randomized trials. His current interests focus on risk models for risk stratification, discovery and validation of markers of early cancer detection, and screening.

In 2018, Prof Kaaks took over the coordination of the German LUSI trial – a randomized trial for to evaluate the efficacy of LDCT screening as a means to reduce lung cancer mortality. Further relevant previous projects or activities, similar to the subject of this proposal include, in particular, the German PROBASE trial – a randomized trial for risk-based prostate cancer screening – for which the Division of Cancer Epidemiology provides methodologic support for study design and performs the all central data management. Rudolf Kaaks has also been among the initiating PIs for the set up of the German National Cohort study – a multi-center prospective cohort study of 200,000 women and men in Germany, for epidemiologic research on chronic diseases.
Professor Kaaks published 833 (inter)national publications, with 50,893 citations and an H-index of 108 (Scopus).

Partner 4ITLR early detection screening site Ruhrlandklinik, Essen, Germany

Professor Clemens Aigner is the director of the Department of Thoracic Surgery and Thoracic Endoscopy, Ruhrlandklinik-University Clinic Essen and since 2017 is co-director of the West German Cancer Center. He is a professor at the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE).

Prof. Aigner was previously a senior physician at the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna. He is specialized in performing lung cancer surgery. The Department of Thoracic Surgery in Ruhrlandklinik, where Prof. Aigner had been working since 2016, is one of the largest thoracic surgical departments in Germany. It focuses on studying lung cancer and oncological lung surgery.

Partner 4ITLR early detection screening site, Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, Italy

Ugo Pastorino is director of the Thoracic Surgery Division at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori in Milan since 2003. Graduated in Medicine in 1979 at the University of Milan and specialised in Emergency Surgery, Oncology and Thoracic Surgery. In 1991 he launched the International Registry of Lung Metastases. From 1982 to 1988 he acted as Executive Director of the European School of Oncology (ESO), and from 1991 to 1994 as Secretary General of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC).  He was appointed as consultant thoracic surgeon at the Royal Brompton Hospital of London in 1994, Head of Thoracic Surgery at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) from 1998, and Scientific Director of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milan in 2014/2015. From 2001 to 2014 he was Associate Editor of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and from 2014 he is Editor in Chief of Tumori Journal.

Dr. Pastorino is author of more than 393 papers, with an H-index of 62 (Scopus) and is actually the PI of three prospective trials on lung cancer screening with LDCT and circulating biomarkers (MILD, BioMILD, SMILE). In 2016 he received the Joseph Cullen Award for Research on Lung Cancer Prevention from the IASLC.

Partner 4ITLR NHS University College London Hospitals

Sam Janes won an MRC Training Fellowship to perform a PhD and then a post-doctoral period working in the CRUK Lincoln’s Inn Fields Institute with Fiona Watt working on lung cancer biology. He then moved as an MRC Clinician Scientist to UCL leading a group interested in the role of stem cells in lung cancer pathogenesis and treatment of lung disease using cell therapies. He was awarded a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellowship in October 2010 to work on novel cell therapies for lung cancers resulting in a DPFS first-in-man award and in 2015 won his Wellcome Senior Fellowship renewal to study the genetic and cellular changes lung cancer pathogenesis. He is the lead of four academic lead randomised clinical trials and most notably recently launched the SUMMIT study, a 50,000 participant London based study examining CT and blood screening for lung and other cancers.

He works as a respiratory consultant at UCLH with a particular interest in lung cancer, mesothelioma, interventional and diagnostic bronchoscopy and early lung cancer detection. He is Head of Respiratory Research Department at UCL, Vice-Chair of the National ‘Clinical Expert Group’ on Lung Cancer.

Partner 4ITLR early detection screening site, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain

Dr. Borràs is professor of public health, Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Barcelona. He is advisor to the cancer strategy of Department of Health of the Region of Catalonia as well as to the Ministry of Health. He received his MD from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1981 and his PhD in public health in 1989. He has worked for the Department of Health in cancer control and technology assessment in cancer (1988-1996). He was director to the Catalan Institute of Oncology (1996-2006). His main research interests include the analysis of trends in cancer incidence and mortality and health services research in determinants of utilization of cancer prevention and care. He has been work Package leader (Health care) in the European Partnership Action Against Cancer (2011-2014), involved in the joint action on Cancer Control (CANCON), in the Joint action on Rare Cancer (JARC) and he still has this role in the Joint action on Innovative Partnership (iPAAC).

Partner 4ITLR early detection screening site, Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan, Italy

Gabriella Sozzi leads the Tumor Genomics Unit at Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori in Milan. The research activity is centered on all aspects of lung cancer by using an integrated approach that combines cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry and pharmacology to gain new insights in the pathogenesis of lung cancer and on novel ways to provide early diagnosis and novel treatment options. The goal of her translational studies is the implementation of highly sensitive molecular tests that could be used within screening programs to improve both detection and clinical management of lung cancers.

Her work has led to the identification of cancer initiating cells in lung cancer and characterization of microRNA aberrant expression in lung tumor and normal tissues and their functional and therapeutic studies. She has developed a plasma microRNA signature (MSC test) based on 24 miRNAs with predictive, diagnostic, and prognostic potential. She recently broadened her interest focusing to the study of mechanisms and biomarkers of response/resistance to immunecheckpoint inhibitors. In the field of circulating biomarkers she has a demonstrated record of successful and productive research projects in an area such as Lung Cancer screening of high relevance for the National Health System of almost every country. Dr. Sozzi has published 234 original articles (SCOPUS h-index 55 ).

Partner 4ITLR Nottingham University

Dr Rachael Murray (RM) specialises in tobacco control research in multiple health settings.  RM is currently the PI on a £1million grant investigating the addition of a personalised smoking cessation intervention to a lung cancer screening programme (the Yorkshire Enhanced Stop Smoking Study, YESS; delivered as part of the Yorkshire Lung Screening Trial, YLST).  In addition, RM is also involved (as a CoI) on a number of other research projects focussed around delivering smoking cessation and lifestyle interventions within screening and lung cancer treatment, including ‘PREHABS: Prehabilitation Radiotherapy, Exercise, smoking HAbit cessation and Balanced diet Study’; ‘Readiness of community-based lung cancer screening services to deliver concurrent smoking cessation treatment’ and ‘Development and piloting of a radiographer-led smoking cessation intervention in the lung cancer screening setting’ (2018) funded by the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. She is also a site lead for a multi-centre Trial of physical activity Assisted Reduction of Smoking (TARS) funded by the NIHR.

RM has previously led two large hospital inpatient trials of delivering smoking cessation interventions to patients during admission and upon discharge, and has overseen qualitative evaluations of both.  The first was presented to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and used as a model for the PH48 guidance ‘Smoking: acute, maternity and mental health services’.

RM has an international reputation in smoking cessation; she is working with the European Congress for Personalised Medicine to produce guidelines concerning smoking cessation in lung cancer screening, as a methodologist for the development of the American Thoracic Society ‘Treatment of Tobacco Dependence guideline and has been invited to present her research on smoking cessation in lung cancer screening to the British Thoracic Oncology Group. She is involved in smoking cessation research in China, and is involved with grant applications to deliver smoking cessation provision (as part of multi-million pound research grants) in the EU, and in rural mountainous regions of South East Asia. Further, she is working with a number of the recently announced NHS England lung cancer screening projects to advise on the integration of smoking cessation provision.

Partner 4ITLR early detection screening site, Gustave Roussy, Paris, France

Dr Corinne Balleyguier, MD, PhD is the head of imaging department in Gustave Roussy Institut, Villejuif, France. She is a radiologist, specialized in oncology and women imaging. Her research interests are oncology imaging, innovations in imaging, particularly breast imaging, clinical research trials and optimization of patient experience in oncological imaging. She wrote more than 130 publications in international peer-reviewed journals. She is a radiologist involved as a principal investigator for France in the H2020 4-in-the-lung-run trial.

Partner 4ITLR Nottingham University

Dr O’Dowd is a consultant respiratory physician at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. She was awarded a PhD in lung cancer epidemiology entitled Factors influencing the diagnosis and subsequent prognosis in patients with lung cancer in 2017, funded by the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. Her research interests are lung cancer screening, early diagnosis and epidemiology of lung cancer. She is a member of the National Cancer Research Institute Screening, Prevention and Early Diagnosis Group and the British Thoracic Society Lung Cancer and Mesothelioma Advisory Group

4ITLR early detection screening site, iDNA, the Netherlands

Daniël Lubbers is the chairman of the organisational unit of Radiology of the Medical Partnership Drachten (MMD, Medische Maatschap Drachten) at Nij Smellinghe, hospital, Drachten. Together with the entire organisational unit and hospital administration he has a keen interest in early detection and preventive medicine in general.

Daniël Lubbers completed his training in cardiovascular radiology and general radiology in 2012 in Groningen. In 2009 he obtained his PhD with a thesis on “myocardial perfusion in the detection of myocardial ischemia”. A topic on which he acquired many invitational lectures and an award of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Besides graduating at medicine at the university of Groningen, he also graduated on psychology, with a subspecialty on neuropsychology. After graduating as a cardiovascular and general radiologist he was further trained in neuroradiology, obtaining his European Board certified Neuroradiologist diploma in 2018.

Partner 4ITLR modelling and survival analysis

Dr. ten Haaf has a Master’s degree in Econometrics & Management Science and wrote his PhD thesis (cum laude) on lung cancer screening (“Lung Cancer Screening: Optimization through risk stratification”). His main research interests are guiding public health policies through (cost-)effectiveness analyses based on natural-history modelling, risk-prediction and personalization of screening and overdiagnosis in screening. He has been involved in modelling studies and health technology assessments for lung cancer (screening) for the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), Ontario, Canada, and Switzerland. In addition to being part of the 4-IN-THE-LUNG-RUN consortium, he is a member of the Cancer intervention and Screening Network (CISNET) group as well as the Dutch Belgian randomized lung cancer screening trial (NELSON) research group.