Neil Burnet MD, FRCR, FRCS

Professor Burnet leads the university academic radiotherapy group. He qualified in medicine from Cambridge University and Westminster Hospital in London. His initial training was in surgery, including a period in neurosurgery. The majority of his oncology training took place at the Royal Marsden and Middlesex Hospitals. A research project at the Institute of Cancer Research on the relationship between cellular radiation sensitivity and individual variation in normal tissue response to radiotherapy work led to the degree of MD, won an ESTRO award, and won the Sir Lionel Whitby Medal from University of Cambridge. He took up his first consultant post at Velindre Hospital in Cardiff, before moving to Cambridge in 1996.

His clinical special interests are in tumours of the CNS, including pituitary tumours, and in advanced radiotherapy techniques. His research interests include the implementation and application of advanced radiotherapy techniques, such as image guided intensity modulated radiotherapy using the TomoTherapy platform, possible genetic differences underlying individual variation in normal tissue response (the ‘RAPPER’ study), and most recently in collaboration with the Cavendish (physics) Laboratory, the Department of Engineering, and across Addenbrooke’s, linking radiotherapy dose at the voxel level with toxicity, the ‘VoxTox’ Programme Grant funded by Cancer Research UK.