cambridge international head and neck cancer conference

Mr Furrat Amen

FRCS (ORL-HNS) DOHNS MSc DIC MD (Res) DCC (Paris)

Conference Organiser and Founder

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Mr Furrat Amen is a Consultant ENT/Head and Neck, Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgeon at Peterborough City Hospital and Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. He was the Chair of the Regional Head and Neck Cancer Committee. He studied medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London followed by training in ENT at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford. He was a Specialist Registrar in the North Thames London Rotation based at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital, Royal Marsden Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. He completed genetics research at the Hammersmith Hospital, London, and was awarded a Masters degree in Surgical Sciences from Imperial College, London. He was awarded a MD(Res) degree from the Institute of Cancer Research, London for his research on "Molecular prediction of metastasis from oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma".

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He was the international head and neck cancer surgical fellow at the Institut Gustave Roussy, Paris, France’s national and international referral centre for cancer and thyroid surgery and was awarded the Diploma of Head and Neck Cancer Studies at the University of Paris. His main interests are all forms of adult and paediatric ENT Surgery, head and neck cancer and thyroid surgery, and translational genetics cancer research allowing for personalised cancer treatment.

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Mrs Samar Amen​

Conference Co-organiser and co-founder

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Samar Amen is a pharmacist who graduated from Bradford University and co-founded the Cambridge International Head and Neck Cancer Conference. 

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Mrs Sarah Pilsworth

Conference Co-organiser - In charge of Allied Health Professional Section

​Sarah Pilsworth, is a Macmillan senior specialist speech and language therapist (SLT) who joined Addenbrooke's Hospital in 2002. Sarah trained in London at the Central School of Speech and Drama where her interest in voice work began.

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Mr Xenofon Kochilas

Conference Co-organiser

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Xenofon Kochilas is an ENT and Head and Neck Surgeon based at North West Anglia Foundation Trust. He is the clinical lead for head and neck cancer in the trust and has an interest in thyroid surgery. 

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​Professor Ehab Hanna

MD FACS

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Ehab Hanna is an internationally recognized head and neck surgeon and expert in the treatment of patients with skull base tumors and head and neck cancer. He is Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. After earning his medical degree, he completed a surgery internship at Vanderbilt University, and residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. He received advanced fellowship training in skull base surgery and head and neck surgical oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He joined the MD Anderson faculty in 2004 with a joint appointment at Baylor College of Medicine. He is the medical director of the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Center and co-director of the Skull Base Tumor program at MD Anderson. Dr. Hanna was recently elected President of the North American Skull Base Society (NASBS) which was founded in 1989, and is a professional medical society that facilitates communication worldwide between individuals pursuing clinical and research excellence in skull base surgery. Dr. Hanna is leading the development of minimally invasive and robotic applications in skull base surgery. He has consistently been named one of America's Top Doctors by the Castle Connolly Guide. In addition to patient care, Dr. Hanna is actively engaged in clinical and translational research with emphasis on skull base tumors. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal of Head & Neck, which is the official journal of the International Federation of Head and Neck Societies. He also co-edited a text book on "Comprehensive Management of Skull Base Tumors".

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Professor Kevin Harrington

BSc MBBS MRCP FRCR FRCP PhD DIC

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Professor Kevin Harrington specialises in treating patients with head and neck cancer. He is Joint Head of the Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging. In addition to expertise in the use of radiotherapy and chemoradiotherapy, he is an authority on drug treatment of relapsed and metastatic head and neck cancer. He is a Professor in Biological Cancer Therapies at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and a Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation. 

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Professor Harrington studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London and began focusing on head and neck cancer while a PhD student at Hammersmith Hospital. He completed post-doctoral research in molecular medicine at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, before being appointed as a Consultant Oncologist at The Royal Marsden in 2001. 

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Within the ICR, he leads the Targeted Therapy Team Leader in the Division of Cancer Biology. His research team focuses on two main areas: the use of viruses as anti-cancer agents and the development of new drugs that improve the activity of radiation against cancer cells. 

He holds a number of research grants, including programmatic and infrastructure funding from CRUK and the MRC. He has published more than 400 articles on cancer treatment and his work has been featured in newspaper and television reports. Much of Professor Harrington's laboratory work is immediately translated into clinical trials at The Royal Marsden, most often in patients with head and neck cancers and melanomas. Professor Harrington says that his focus is on conducting innovative laboratory research with a view to applying it in the clinical setting for "real patient benefit".

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​Professor Rui Fernandes

MD DMD FACS FRCS

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Rui Fernandes, M.D., D.M.D., FACS, FRCS, is a University of Florida professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery and a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon at UF Health Jacksonville. He also serves as associate chair of the UF Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in Jacksonville, chief of the Division of Head and Neck Surgery, and program director of the Head and Neck Oncologic Surgery and Microvascular Fellowship. He is also director of the UF Center for Reconstructive Surgery, and co-director of the UF Health Skull Base Surgery Program.

Dr. Fernandes specializes in head and neck cancer, oral cancer, salivary gland pathology, jaw tumors, microvascular reconstructive surgery, and thyroid and parathyroid surgery. He received his dental degree from the Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts, and his medical degree from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama. He completed his residency in oral and maxillofacial surgery at University of Alabama Hospital, as well as fellowship training in maxillofacial oncology and reconstructive surgery at the University of Maryland James L. Kernan Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

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​​​​​​​Professor Vincent Grégoire 

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Prof. Vincent Grégoire graduated with as a Medical Doctor (MD) in 1987 from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. He was board certified in Radiation Oncology in Belgium in 1994 and obtained his PhD in Radiation Biology in 1996 after a fellowship at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas (USA). Prof. Grégoire is the Head of the Radiation Oncology Department at the Léon Bérard Cancer Center in Lyon, France. He coordinates the Head and Neck Oncology program where the publication of the consensus guidelines for selection and delineation of the target volumes brought him worldwide recognition. Beside his clinical activities, Vincent Grégoire has been running a translational research program on tumour microenvironment, on the integration of functional and molecular imaging for treatment planning, and on the molecular basis of increased radiosensitivity in HPV-infected cells. Vincent Grégoire has directed or co-directed 15 PhD theses and has authored or co-authored 254 peer-reviewed publications and 16 book chapters. He has delivered close to 850 abstract presentations, lectures or teaching seminars worldwide

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Professor Haitham Mirghani

Professor of Head and Neck Surgery, European Hospital Georges Pompidou, Paris

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Professor Haitham Mirghani studied medicine at the University of Paris XII. He was an ENT registrar in Lille and then spent five years as a head and neck surgery fellow in Paris and 8 years as a consultant at the Institut Gustave Roussy, France’s national and international referral centre for cancer. He was awarded several diplomas in the field of head and neck cancer. His main clinical activity is head and neck cancer surgery, including thyroid surgery and free flap reconstruction. His research interests are mainly devoted to HPV induced head and neck cancers.

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Professor Mario Fernández

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He is the Head of the Head and Neck Surgery Section at the Gregorio Marañón University General Hospital and belongs to the board of the European Head and Neck Society.

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He invented the technique of Transoral Ultrasonic Surgery (TOUSS) for head and neck cancer. He is also developing a new artificial larynx. He is an expert in pharyngeal cancer, throat and laryngeal cancer, nose cancer, ear cancer, thyroid gland surgery and parathyroid gland surgery.

He has a degree in medicine and surgery from the University of Santiago de Compostela, and has a doctorate from the University of La Coruña. Throughout his professional career, he has combined his healthcare work with teaching as a professor associated with the Complutense University of Madrid.

The doctor is a member of the Galician Society of Otorhinolaryngology and has been distinguished by two awards.

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Dr Sarah Jefferies

BSc MB BS FRCR PhD FRCP

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Dr Sarah Jefferies is the Clinical Director for Cancer at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. She qualified from University College London and trained in clinical oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital. She undertook a PhD at the Institute of Cancer Research. Her specialist interests are the management of central nervous system (CNS) tumours and thyroid cancers.

Dr Jefferies is lead investigator for a number of multicentre studies for CNS and thyroid tumours. She has an interest in teaching and leads both national and international courses in the management of CNS tumours. She is a member of the National Cancer Research Institute Brain Tumour group and is the chair of the Glioma Sub-group. 

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