The Christie Charity
Fiona Thistlethwaite
Name
Fiona Thistlethwaite
Job title
Medical oncology consultant
Email Address
the-christie.ECMT.enquiries@nhs.net
Phone number
0161 918 2379
Qualifications
MB, BChir, PhD, MRCP
Specialities
Experimental cancer medicine, Immunotherapy
Started at The Christie (Year)
2003
Responsibilities
Professor Fiona Thistlethwaite is a medical oncology consultant within the Experimental Cancer Medicines Team (ECMT), Medical Director of the Christie Clinical Research Facility, Clinical Lead for the Advanced Immunotherapy and Cell Therapy (AICT) Team Director of iMATCH (Innovate Manchester Advanced Therapy Centre Hub).
Professional biography
Professor Thistlethwaite is an honorary professor at The University of Manchester. She graduated from The University of Cambridge MB PhD programme in 1999. Her PhD, under the supervision of Professor Sir Martin Evans, explored the molecular mechanisms that lead to cancer in inherited breast cancer syndromes.
Following training posts at Liverpool Royal, The Royal Marsden and The Christie, she became a consultant at The Christie in 2007. Her clinical practice is in Experimental Cancer Medicine and immune-oncology and her academic focus is clinical trial development in immunotherapy and adoptive T-cell therapy.
Fiona leads the Manchester health consortium, iMATCH, which was awarded almost £9 million by Innovate UK to ensure that more patients benefit from a new generation of advanced cell therapies. She is the Medical Director of the Christie Clinical Research Facility which delivers over 400 clinical trials to cancer patients.
Research Interest
Professor Thistlethwaite has an active clinical trials research portfolio in early phase clinical trials (adult solid tumours) within the ECMT. Fiona has a particular focus on immune-oncology, in particular adoptive cell therapies, combination immunotherapies and immune biomarkers.
Among Fiona’s research interests is how the immune system can be harnessed against cancer, in particular using adoptive cell transfer of T-cells activated against cancer antigens. She is also a member of the MRC DPFS (Medical Research Council Developmental Pathways Funding Scheme) panel which awards over £30M funding to innovative clinical research programmes.
Educational Interests
Professor Thistlethwaite is an educational and clinical supervisor of doctors in training and lectures at The University of Manchester, including the MRes in Experimental Cancer Medicine.