Professor James Larkin
Consultant Medical Oncologist who specialises in the treatment of melanoma and cancers of the kidney, The Royal Marsden Hospital
Speaker's biography
Professor Larkin grew up in North Cornwall before taking a first in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University. He undertook clinical training at Oxford University, qualifying in 1996. He underwent general medical training in London and in 2001 won a Medical Research Council Fellowship for a Clinician, carrying out laboratory research at the Institute of Cancer Research leading to a PhD. Specialist training was completed at The Royal Marsden and he was appointed a Consultant in 2008.
His research interests involve trying to understand cancer and its consequences better as well as developing improved treatments, particularly with targeted therapies and immunotherapies.
He is a past Senior Clinical Advisor to CRUK, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) National Specialty Lead for Early Phase Oncology Trials, as well as past Chair of the NCRI Renal Cancer Clinical Studies Group, The Royal Marsden/ICR Committee for Clinical Research and the CRUK Clinical Research Monitoring Panel. He is currently Vice-Chair of the CRUK Clinical Research Committee and Lead of the Uncommon Cancers Theme at The Royal Marsden/ICR Biomedical Research Centre. In 2018 he was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Since 2019 he has been Vice-Chair of the Medical Oncology Specialist Advisory Committee for the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board and in 2020 he was appointed as an NIHR Senior Investigator.
He serves as a medical advisor to the patient advocacy group Melanoma UK, as a trustee of the Kidney Cancer Support Network and serves on the Medical Advisory Board of the International Kidney Cancer Coalition.