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Karol Sikora

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Karol Sikora
Born (1948-06-17) June 17, 1948 (age 76)
UK
NationalityBritish
Alma materDulwich College,
University of Cambridge, Stanford University
Known forOncology
Scientific career
FieldsMedicine, Oncology
InstitutionsRoyal Postgraduate Medical School
University of Buckingham

Karol Sikora (born 17 June 1948)[1][2] is a British physician specialising in oncology, who has been described as a leading world authority on cancer.[3][4][5] He was a founder and medical director of Rutherford Health,[6] a company that provided proton therapy services, and is Director of Medical Oncology at the Bahamas Cancer Centre.

He is currently Professor of Medicine at the University of Buckingham,[7] and a partner in and dean of Buckingham's medical school.

Early life

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Karol Sikora was born in 1948. His father was a captain in the Polish Army who arrived in Great Britain during World War II[8] and his mother was a Scottish schoolteacher.[9] His childhood was spent in Edinburgh, Stafford and London.

He attended Dulwich College on a London County Council scholarship before going to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge where he became a Foundation Scholar and obtained a double first.[10] He received his PhD at Stanford University, where he also served a clinical fellowship.[11]

Career

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After leaving Stanford University, Sikora returned to Cambridge to direct the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.[12] From 1985 to 1997, he served as the clinical director for cancer services at Hammersmith Hospital in London, where he established a cancer research laboratory, and was Professor of International Cancer Medicine at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, later the Imperial College School of Medicine.[13] During the 1990s Sikora was also deputy director of clinical research at charity the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, the predecessor to Cancer Research UK.[14]

In 1997 he became the Chief of the Cancer Program of the World Health Organization[9] before resigning in 1999 over a disagreement with the UN regarding their proposals to restructure work on non-communicable diseases, stating this would create a "top-heavy bureaucracy".[15] He served as the Vice-President of Global Clinical Research in Oncology at the Pharmacia Corporation from 1999 to 2002.[13] He has also been a member of the UK Health Department's Expert Advisory Group on Cancer, as well as the Committee on Safety of Medicines.[16]

In 2022, Rutherford Health, a company he founded in 2015 and was Medical Director of, was liquidated.[17] He is dean of the University of Buckingham's medical school, the only private medical school in the UK.[18] He is also a member of the Oncology Scientific Advisory Board at biopharmaceutical company Cyclacel Limited, and serves as an oncology consultant for AstraZeneca.[19][20] Sikora also served as the Interim Director of Radiation Oncology for the newly constructed Cancer Centre Eastern Caribbean in Antigua.[21]

He is an unpaid member of the Meat Advisory Panel, a group of scientists that provide information and advice about meat as part of a balanced diet,[22] and is patron of several cancer and other charities, including Medical Detection Dogs, which trains dogs to detect the odour of human disease to assist in diagnosis.[23]

Sikora has published over 300 papers and written or edited 20 books,[16] notably the "standard" UK postgraduate textbook Treatment of Cancer.[3] He appeared in Michael Apted's 1999 documentary film Me & Isaac Newton, which featured interviews with scientists and researchers.

Criticism of National Health Service

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Sikora is known for his outspoken views on National Health Service (NHS) reform,[18] and has written for the Times,[24] the Observer,[25] the New Statesman,[26] and other publications on the subject. He has been critical of the quality of cancer care available on the NHS and has argued for its restructuring,[24] suggesting that while the UK spends as much per patient on cancer care as the rest of Europe, survival rates are substantially lower: "there are 10 new drugs routinely available in Boulogne but not in Brighton".[27]

Along with Maurice Slevin, he argued that the NHS should offer faster cancer treatment timelines.[28]

In a 2017 Newsnight opinion piece, he described the NHS as "the last bastion of communism – it is a monolithic, unmanageable and inefficient system [...] the staff are great but the system is not".[29] He proposed instead regarding it as a tax-based insurance scheme covering "basic costs", and allowing private providers to enter the market.[29]

An interview with Sikora, in which he suggested the NHS system led to patients losing control over their own healthcare, was featured in a May 2009 Republican Party attack ad in the US during US President Barack Obama's push to enact healthcare reform.[30] Sikora later told The Guardian that he did not know his interview would be used in the ad campaign, and that he agreed with Obama that the main problems with the American system were "the high cost of medical treatment" and the large number of uninsured people.[30]

In a piece published online by the New Hampshire Union Leader the same day as the advertisement, Sikora was referred to as professor of oncology at Imperial College. This led Imperial to seek legal advice to stop Sikora being referred to as a current professor of cancer medicine at Imperial; a claim that he was also alleged to have made earlier in the previous five years.[31] On 29 January 2009, Sikora was said to have introduced himself to a Commons health select committee as "...professor of oncology at Imperial College for 22 years."[31] Prior to 2004, Sikora had held the honorary post of Professor of Cancer Medicine at the Imperial College School of Medicine, Hammersmith,[32][33] having been the founding chair of cancer medicine at its predecessor, the Royal Postgraduate Medical School.[34][35]

In the context of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) considering whether to apply age criteria when prescribing expensive drugs, he suggested that "within limited budgets" younger patients might be given priority over the frail elderly.[36]

Views on alternative medicine

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Sikora has in the past suggested that alternative or "complementary" medicine might have some utility in providing psychological care to cancer patients;[37] he has commented "I personally don’t think that complementary medicine is itself a cure [...] but I do believe it [...] allows you to get on top of the fact that you have cancer and live with it in a way that doesn’t disturb you psychologically too much".[38] He has stated that after being invited in the 1980s to work with the Bristol Cancer Help Centre, which employed complementary therapists alongside conventional medicine, he came to believe that complementary therapies such as counselling or acupuncture could "help patients to complete their course of orthodox treatment" and "improve quality of life".[39]

Sikora was a Foundation Fellow of Prince Charles' now-defunct alternative medicine lobby group The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health.[40] He is also a "professional member" of the College of Medicine, a patient-oriented healthcare lobby group also linked to the Prince of Wales that appeared shortly after the collapse of the FIH.[41] Correspondents to the British Medical Journal have criticised the College for its promotion of alternative medicine,[42][43][44][45][46] claims which it has contested.[47] Sikora is on the advisory panel of complementary cancer care charity Penny Brohn Cancer Care[48] (formerly the Bristol Cancer Help Centre) of which Prince Charles is a patron, and is a patron of the Iain Rennie Hospice at Home.[49]

The pharmacologist David Colquhoun noted that the School of Medicine at Buckingham University, of which Sikora is Dean, had briefly offered a diploma in "integrated medicine" (a euphemism for alternative medicine) run by the "Faculty of Integrated Medicine", adding that Sikora's own views on the subject were a "mystery wrapped in an enigma".[50]

Sikora has however, elsewhere been critical of alternative medicine; after Parliament member Lord Maurice Saatchi proposed a bill allowing doctors to use unproven experimental therapies, he noted that this could give false hope to terminally ill patients.[51] He has contrasted therapies having "a profound psychological base", such as counselling, with others "founded on completely spurious pseudoscientific logic".[52]

Release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi

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In September 2009, the man convicted of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds. The Daily Telegraph reported that Sikora, along with Professors Jonathan Waxman and Ibrahim Sharif, was one of three doctors hired by the Libyan government to assess Megrahi's condition prior to the release.[53]

Sikora's report concluded that Megrahi would "likely" die within three months due to terminal prostate cancer; Sharif agreed and Waxman conceded Megrahi did not have long to live.[54] Megrahi outlived the prognosis and died on 20 May 2012, two years and nine months after his release.[55] Sikora later denied that he had been pressured by Libya to agree Megrahi had under three months to live: "on the balance of probability, you could justify that [claim], but you couldn't say he was definitely going to be dead in three months".[54] The Scottish government confirmed Sikora's report was not used by the Scottish Justice Minister in making the decision to release Megrahi, which was instead based on their own medical reports and input from the parole board and governor.[56]

Sikora has since complained about the way journalists have reported his views and stated that he was not paid to make claims,[57] and there was probably a less than one percent chance of Megrahi living 10 years.[58]

Commentary on UK response to COVID-19

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Sikora has commented in the UK media on the UK's public health response to COVID-19, expressing concerns that policies of lockdown could impact treatment of other conditions, particularly cancer.[59][60][61] On 21 September 2020, Sikora alongside Carl Heneghan, Sunetra Gupta and 28 other signatories, wrote an open letter to top UK government officials asking for a rethink to the Covid strategy. It called for a targeted approach to lockdowns advising that only over-65s and the vulnerable should be shielded.[62][63][64]

Works

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  • Interferon and cancer, 1983
  • Clinical Physiology (with Campbell, Dickinson, Slater and Edwards), 1984
  • Endocrine Problems in Cancer (with Roland T. Jung), 1984
  • Monoclonal Antibodies (with Howard Smedley), 1984
  • Molecular Biology and Human Disease (with Sandy McCleod), 1984
  • Cancer – what it is and how it's treated (with Rob Stepney and Howard Smedley), 1985
  • Cancer – a study guide (with Howard Smedley), 1985
  • Cancer (with Howard Smedley), 1988
  • The Molecular Biology of Cancer (with Jonathan Waxman), 1989
  • Fight Cancer (with Hilary Thomas), 1989
  • Treatment of Cancer (with Keith Halnan and Pat Price), 1990, 1995, 2002, 2008
  • Genes and Cancer (editor), 1990
  • The cancer cell (with Gerard Evan and James Watson), 1991
  • Human genetic therapy (with Jonathan Harris), 1994
  • Cancer: a positive approach (with Hilary Thomas), 1995
  • Handbook of oncology (with Victor Barley and Jeff Tobias), 1998, 2004
  • The Realities of Rationing (with John Spiers et al.), 1999
  • The cancer survival kit (with Rosy Daniel), 2004
  • Cancer 2025: The future of cancer care (editor), 2005
  • Economics of Cancer Care (with Nick Bosanquet), 2006

References

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  1. ^ "Birthdays". The Guardian. 17 June 2014. p. 37.
  2. ^ "Eminent Old Alleynians: Science & Medicine". Dulwich College. Retrieved 27 November 2008.
  3. ^ a b "Karol Sikora". Sheffield Hallam University. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  4. ^ "Breast Cancer". Hansard Parliamentary Debates, v.555. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  5. ^ "National Health Service". Hansard Parliamentary Debates, v.609. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  6. ^ Proceedings of 2nd Edition of International Conference on Clinical Oncology and Molecular Diagnostics 2018. EuroScicon. 2018. p. 18.
  7. ^ "Professor Karol Sikora outlines tough choices ahead for the NHS", Hospital Times, 25-02-2020
  8. ^ de Quetteville, Harry; Pierce, Andrew (15 August 2008). "Lech Walesa backs US missile deal". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  9. ^ a b Murray, N. (17 January 2013). "Karol Sikora – On cancer, private medical schools and Snoopy mugs". Trauma (19): 14.
  10. ^ "Eminent Old Alleynians : Science & Medicine". Old Alleynians Society. Dulwich College. Retrieved 8 July 2011.[permanent dead link]
  11. ^ Annual Report of the Cancer Research Campaign, vol 55. CRC. 1977. p. 17.
  12. ^ "Anticancer antibodies produced from human cells". New Scientist. Vol. 93, no. 1291. IPC Magazines. 4 February 1982. p. 305. Retrieved 2 May 2020 – via Google Books.
  13. ^ a b McNeil, C. (1999). "WHO reorganizes, groups cancer program with other non-communicable diseases". Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 91 (16): 1355. doi:10.1093/jnci/91.16.1355. PMID 10451434.
  14. ^ "News". Nursing Times. 91 (39–44): 5.
  15. ^ Brown, P. (26 June 1999). "WHO's cancer chief resigns". BMJ. 318 (7200). British Medical Journal: 1719. doi:10.1136/bmj.318.7200.1719a. PMID 10381700. S2CID 36718875.
  16. ^ a b "Professor Karol Sikora". University of Buckingham. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  17. ^ Scancariello, Antonio (7 June 2022). "Health group with diagnostic centre in Taunton to go into liquidation". Somerset County Gazette.
  18. ^ a b Cohen, Deborah; Fišter, Kristina (January 2005). "Rejecting Political Correctness". British Medical Journal. 330 (7482): 62. doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7482.62. PMC 543861. PMID 15637368.
  19. ^ "Professor Kenneth Harrap, Professor Stanley Kaye, Professor Michel Marty, Professor Enrico Mihich, Professor Karol Sikora | Cyclacel Scientific Advisory Board". Cyclacel.com. 29 July 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  20. ^ "CHI's Molecular Med Monthly Articles". Chidb.com. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  21. ^ "Antigua and Barbuda Says Cancer Centre Project Back on Track". Caribjournal.com. 5 March 2013. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  22. ^ "Meat Advisory Panel (MAP) | Meat and Health". meatandhealth.redmeatinfo.com. Archived from the original on 18 March 2013. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  23. ^ "Karol Sikora". Medical Detection Dogs. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  24. ^ a b Sikora, Karol (4 April 2006). "Stop, think, rebuild; a prescription for the NHS". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 10 February 2007. Retrieved 27 November 2008.
  25. ^ Sikora, Karol (1 October 2006). "It's time to take the politics out of cancer". The Observer. London. Retrieved 27 November 2008.
  26. ^ Sikora, Karol (15 January 2007). "NHS: Can this patient survive?". New Statesman. Retrieved 27 November 2008.
  27. ^ Spiers, John (2008). Who decides who decides? Choice, Equity, Access, Improved Performance, and Patient Guaranteed Care. Radcliffe. p. 114.
  28. ^ Templeton, Sarah-Kate (26 August 2007). "Experts push NHS to use US style cancer care". The Times & The Sunday Times. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
  29. ^ a b Sikora, Karol (21 February 2017). "The NHS is the last bastion of communism" (Video). Facebook. BBC Newsnight. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  30. ^ a b McGreal, Chris (13 May 2009). "US health lobby: reform could make us as bad as the NHS". The Guardian. London.
  31. ^ a b Boseley, Sarah (22 May 2009). "Cancer expert Karol Sikora accused over honorary professorship claim". The Guardian. London.
  32. ^ Cohen, Deborah; Fišter, Kristina (6 January 2005). "Rejecting political correctness". BMJ. 330 (7482): 62. doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7482.62. PMC 543861. PMID 15637368.
  33. ^ Sikora, Karol (16 January 1999). "Cancer services are suffering in Iraq". BMJ. 318 (7177): 203. doi:10.1136/bmj.318.7177.203. PMC 1114691. PMID 9888945.
  34. ^ McNeil, Caroline (18 August 1999). "WHO Reorganizes, Groups Cancer Program With Other Non-Communicable Diseases". JNCI. 91 (16): 1355. doi:10.1093/jnci/91.16.1355. PMID 10451434.
  35. ^ Medical Sciences International Who's Who, Longman, 1990, p.1072
  36. ^ "Doctor wants to deny elderly cancer drugs".
  37. ^ British Medical Journal 1989;298:1583
  38. ^ "Professor Karol Sikora". Cancer Active. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  39. ^ "Empowering the patient", International Therapist, 89 (Jul 2009), 58
  40. ^ "Foundation Fellows". fih.org.uk. The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health. Archived from the original on 22 April 2012.
  41. ^ "Professor Karol Sikora". collegeofmedicine.org.uk. College of Medicine. Archived from the original on 22 May 2013.
  42. ^ Cassidy, Jane (15 June 2011). "Lobby Watch: The College of Medicine". British Medical Journal. 343: d3712. doi:10.1136/bmj.d3712. PMID 21677014.
  43. ^ Colquhoun, David (12 July 2011). "The College of Medicine is Prince's Foundation reincarnated". British Medical Journal. 343: d4368. doi:10.1136/bmj.d4368. PMID 21750061. S2CID 26752930.
  44. ^ May, James (12 July 2011). "College of Medicine: What is integrative health?". British Medical Journal. 343: d4372. doi:10.1136/bmj.d4372. PMID 21750063. S2CID 206893456.
  45. ^ Ernst, Edzard (12 July 2011). "College of Medicine or College of Quackery?". British Medical Journal. 343: d4370. doi:10.1136/bmj.d4370. PMID 21750062. S2CID 8061172.
  46. ^ Hawkes, Nigel (2010). "Prince's foundation metamorphoses into new College of Medicine". British Medical Journal. Vol. 341. p. 6126. doi:10.1136/bmj.c6126.
  47. ^ Lewith, George T.; Catto, Graeme; Dixon, Michael; Glover, Christine; Halligan, Aidan; Kennedy, Ian; Manning, Christopher; Peters, David (12 July 2011). "College of Medicine replies to its critics". British Medical Journal. 343: d4364. doi:10.1136/bmj.d4364. PMID 21750060. S2CID 21334595.
  48. ^ "Vice Presidents and Senior Team". pennybrohncancercare.org. Penny Brohn Cancer Care. Archived from the original on 6 July 2008.
  49. ^ "Patrons & Vice Presidents". IRHH.org. Iain Rennie Hospice at Home. Archived from the original on 28 June 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  50. ^ Colquhoun, David (1 April 2010). "University of Buckingham does the right thing. The Faculty of Integrated Medicine has been fired". DC's Improbable Science.
  51. ^ Cheng, Maria (13 March 2013). "Grieving husband pushes bill for unproven remedies". Seattle Times. Associated Press. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  52. ^ Sikora, Karol (2 July 1994). "Review: Cures and comforts". New Scientist (1932).
  53. ^ Alderson, Andrew (5 September 2009). "Revealed: Libya paid for medical advice that helped Lockerbie bomber's release". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 6 September 2009.
  54. ^ a b Doward, Jamie (14 August 2010). "Megrahi's doctor: 'I just provided an opinion. Someone else let him go free'". The Guardian.
  55. ^ "Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi dies in Tripoli". BBC. 20 May 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2012.
  56. ^ Naysmith, Robin (9 July 2010). "Reply to four US Senators re Megrahi" (PDF). Government of Scotland.
  57. ^ "I wasn't paid by Libya to lie about al-Megrahi cancer, insists doctor". Daily Record. 28 February 2010.
  58. ^ "Lockerbie doctor speaks out over Megrahi comments". stv.tv. 15 July 2010.
  59. ^ Blakely, Rhys. This is an unfolding disaster. My advice? Don’t get cancer in 2020. The Times, 22-08-20
  60. ^ Where have all the cancer patients gone? Oncologist warns delays in diagnoses could lead to thousands of needless deaths, ITV news, 28-08-20
  61. ^ Sikora, K.Britain faces a deadly new cancer crisis thanks to lockdown and we are being too slow to react to it Daily Telegraph, 06-07-20
  62. ^ Boris must urgently rethink his Covid strategy, The Spectator, 21-09-20
  63. ^ Yorke, Harry (21 September 2020). "Reimposing national lockdown measures is 'increasingly unfeasible', leading scientists warn Boris Johnson". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  64. ^ Boseley, Sarah (22 September 2020). "Covid UK: scientists at loggerheads over approach to new restrictions". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
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