A Maltese medical oncologist has spearheaded a major cancer research breakthrough in the UK, offering hope to thousands of prostate cancer patients worldwide.

Gert Attard, Director of the Cancer Institute at University College London (UCL), led a team that developed a test capable of identifying which men with advanced prostate cancer will benefit from chemotherapy using the drug docetaxel.

The test analyses tumour samples to predict a patient’s response, helping clinicians determine who will live longer with chemotherapy. According to Dr Attard, for those patients, the risk of dying is cut by half. However, for the other half, the treatment brings no benefit – only side effects.

Dr Attard, who moved to London in 2003 to pursue cancer research, is also an honorary medical oncology consultant at University College London Hospital. He graduated in Medicine from the University of Malta in 1999, later earning a PhD in Medicine from the University of London in 2010.

Over the years, his research has focused on dissecting treatment resistance, particularly through plasma DNA analysis, with the aim of developing novel therapies and biomarkers for castration-resistant prostate cancer. He is also an experienced clinical trialist and the co-author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, including landmark papers on advanced prostate cancer.

Dr Attard’s work has earned him multiple accolades, among them the ASCO Foundation Annual Merit Award (2007), the Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award (2008), and the Cancer Research UK Future Leaders Award (2017). He is also associate editor of the Annals of Oncology, the official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), and sits on the scientific advisory boards of several companies.