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My Career Highlights: Professor Mieke Van Hemelrijck

27 July 2021

Dr Mieke Van Hemelrijck is a Professor of Cancer Epidemiology within the School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences. She specialises in urological cancers and leads the Translational Oncology and Urology Research Group.

As Dr Hemelrijck is about to join the NICE Indicator Advisory Committee, we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to ask her to reflect on her career so far and pinpoint some key successes.

Dr Hemelrijck published her PhD papers in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Lancet Oncology back in 2010, followed closely by obtaining the opportunity to stay at King’s and continue work as a newly titled post-doc.

Five years into her career, her first PhD student graduated. At the same time, Mieke celebrated a very personal success - the birth of her first child – a son, welcomed into the world in 2015.

A productive year for research opportunities came in 2018, when Mieke received funding for the PIONEER project, a large collaboration with the European Association of Urology which aims to transform the field of prostate cancer care, and funding for ReIMAGINE – a research consortium which seeks to change the way that prostate cancer is diagnosed.

A 10^th PhD student graduated in 2019, and the Guy's Cancer Real World Evidence programme was initiated the same year.

Dr Van Hemelrijck was then deservedly promoted to Professor in 2020.

I have always felt very supported by colleagues in our Comprehensive Cancer Centre and hence I am grateful for their time and guidance throughout my time at KCL. They taught me how collaborative work creates opportunities and impactful research, with patients at the centre. My promotion to Professor is not only a recognition of my own work, but also the support and dedication of my team and colleagues at KCL and Guy’s Cancer– Professor Mieke Van Hemelrijck

She joined the EORTC Quality of Life Group Executive Committee in 2020 also and the NICE Indicator Advisory Committee the following year, just recently. This brings us to 2021, present day:

Joining the EORTC Quality of Life Group in 2018 has taken the interest of our TOUR team into patient experiences to a next level. It has provided us with many new opportunities, which have strengthened our collaborations and research output. I am grateful to now be given the opportunity to also serve on the EORTC Board and identify how going forward we can continue to put patients at the centre of all our research activities.– Professor Mieke Van Hemelrijck

Prof Van Hemelrijck explains that getting her TOUR team through the COVID-19 pandemic, with an increase in output and staff recruitment has been a really proud journey. She wants to highlight how fantastically driven the whole team are.

Whilst our TOUR team has and is engaging in a wide variety of clinical studies for different types of cancer, bridging the gap between study findings and change in clinical practice is needed. Hence, I look forward to contributing to the work of NICE and learn more about impactful research with a focus on improving the patient experience.– Professor Mieke Van Hemelrijck