Prof Andy Pearson

Prof Andy Pearson is formerly a Cancer Research UK Professor of Paediatric Oncology, at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital NHS Trust. During a long and distinguished career, he helped establish and led many key groups in the paediatric oncology landscape both nationally and internationally. Prof Pearson authored the first international guidelines for the conduct of Phase I trials in children with cancer, and led the first paediatric Phase I study in the UK.

He was the founding chair of the International Society for Paediatric Oncology Europe Neuroblastoma Committee (SIOPEN) and the Chief Investigator of the BEACON Trial; the first ever randomised European study for children with refractory/relapsed neuroblastoma.

He has held many international positions of influence; including Executive membership of the Innovative Therapy for Children with Cancer Consortium (ITCC), Board membership of SIOPEN, Co-Chair of the International Neuroblastoma Risk Group Strategy (INRG), and membership of the Steering Committee of the multi-stakeholder ACCELERATE Platform. He has published over 350 scientific manuscripts.

He retired from clinical practice in May 2014 due to ill health. Prof Pearson is an eminent figure in the fields of drug development and neuroblastoma research and was awarded a Life Time Achievement Award from Advances in Neuroblastoma Research in 2016. Prof Pearson was Neuroblastoma UK’s Patron but in 2020 , we were delighted when he joined the Board of Trustees.