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Dr Simon Lord

BM, MRCP, DPhil

Dr Simon Lord is the Director of the Early Phase Clinical Trials Unit in the Department of Oncology at the University of Oxford and the Against Breast Cancer Senior Research Fellow at Oriel College. He undertook his medical oncology training in Leeds before moving to Oxford to take up a Cancer Research UK Clinical Research Fellowship and pursue his DPhil. In 2015, Dr Lord was appointed Senior Clinical Researcher in Experimental Cancer Therapeutics in the Department of Oncology and a consultant medical oncologist at the Oxford Cancer Centre. He is a module lead for the Precision Cancer Medicine MSc at the University of Oxford and since 2021 has been a Foundation Programme Academic Lead for the Oxford University Clinical Academic Graduate School (OUCAGS).

Research Interests

Dr Lord’s research focuses on the development of new drugs to treat breast cancer and he is chief and principal investigator for several clinical trials including first in human (phase 1) drug trials. He has an interest in drugs that target cancer metabolism and is leading a number of studies investigating how insulin resistance and obesity may affect cancer drug effectiveness.

Selected Publications

Clift AK, Collins GS, Lord S, Petrou S, Dodwell D, Brady M, Hippisley-Cox J. Development and internal-external validation of statistical and machine learning models for breast cancer prognostication: cohort study. Lancet Digit Health. 2023 Sep;5(9):e571-e581.

Coombes RC, Sacha Howell S, Lord SR, Kenny L, Mansi J, Mitri Z, Carlo Palmieri C, Chap LI, Richards P, Gradishar W, Sardesai S, Melear J, O’Shaughnessy J, Ward P, Chalasani P, Arkenau T, Baird RD, Jeselsohn R, Ali S, Clack G, Bahl A, McIntosh S, Krebs MG. Dose escalation and expansion cohorts in patients with advanced breast cancer in a Phase I study of the CDK7-inhibitor samuraciclib. Nat Commun. 2023 Jul 24;14(1):4444.

Clift AK, Dodwell D, Lord S, Petrou S, Brady M, Collins GS, Hippisley-Cox J. Development and internal-external validation of statistical and machine learning models for breast cancer prognostication: cohort study. BMJ. 2023 May 10;381:e073800.

Lord SR, Harris AL. Is it still worth pursuing the repurposing of metformin as a cancer therapeutic? Br J Cancer. 2023 Apr;128(6):958-966.

Greene J, Segaran A, Lord S. Targeting OXPHOS and the electron transport chain in cancer; Molecular and therapeutic implications Semin Cancer Biol. 2022 Nov;86(Pt 2):851-859.

Lord SR, Collins JM, Cheng W, Haider S, Wigfield S, Gaude E, Fielding BA, Pinnick KE, Harjes U, Segaran A, Jha P, Hoefler G, Pollak M, Thompson A, Roy PJ, English R, Adams RF, Frezza C, Buffa FM, Karpe F, Harris AL. Transcriptomic analysis of human primary breast cancer identifies fatty acid oxidation as a target for metformin. Br J Cancer. 2020 Jan;122(2):258-265.

Lord S, Cheng W, Liu D, Gaude E, Haider S, Metcalf T, Patel N, Teoh EJ, Gleeson, F, Bradley K, Wigfield S, Zois C, McGowan D, Ah-See M, Thompson A, Sharma A, Bidaut L, Pollak M, Roy PG, Karpe F, James T, English R, Adams R, Campo L, Ayers L, Snell C, Roxanis I, Frezza C, Fenwick JD, Buffa FM, Harris AL. Integrated pharmacodynamic analysis identifies two metabolic adaption pathways to metformin in breast cancer. Cell Metabolism. 2018 Nov;28(5):679-688.