Allie Nawrat

With oncology dominating investment and R&D spending in the pharma industry, GlobalData’s influencer platform has identified ten leading influential people working across the oncology space. Credit: Shutterstock.

According to Igea Hub, the global cancer therapeutics market in 2017 was worth $121bn and it is predicted to reach $176bn in 2022. Blockbuster drugs are crucial to oncology’s continuing dominance of the pharma market; Igea Hub identifies Celgene’s Revlimid as the leading product, but others include Merck’s Keytruda and Bristol Myers-Squibb’s Opdivo.

As oncology is such a crucial segment of the industry, GlobalData analysts have identified the top ten influential people in the oncology who have been engaging in interesting conversations on the topic this year.

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1) Mike Thompson

A clinician by trade, Mike Thompson is currently the medical director of Aurora Healthcare’s early Phase Cancer Research Programme and Oncology Precision Medicine Programme. His work mainly focuses on blood cancers and conducting bio-market driven early stage clinical trials.

As well as being a member of various US medical societies, Thompson currently sits on the National Cancer Institute (NCI)’s lymphoma steering committee.

Twitter handle: @mtmdphd

Number of twitter followers: 18,386

2) Minas Chrysopoulo

Minas Chrysopoulo is the president of PRMA Plastic Surgery, which specialises in breast reconstructive surgery. He has used his extensive experience as a plastic surgeon to create the Breast Advocate App, a free platform to provide advice to breast cancer patients and survivors throughout the surgery decision process.

His work has been recognised by professional organisations, including being named as one of America’s top surgeons and winning the plastic surgery award at more than one Doctor’s Choice Awards.

Twitter handle: @drchrysopoulo

Number of twitter followers: 44,126

3) Kathleen Hoffman

Healthcare researcher and writer Kathleen Hoffman helps companies to better communicate complex medical information to and connect with patients on their websites and social media platforms. She also helps pharma clients to foster patient communities, partly through encouraging them to share their experiences through patient testimonials.

She holds a PhD in Communications from the University of Alabama and a post-doctorate in Health Communication from Harvard University.

Twitter handle: @drkdhoffman

Number of twitter followers: 15,838

4) Robert Orlowski

Robert Orlowski has been the director of University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre’s myeloma department since 2007. He is also the Myeloma Committee Chair for the National Cancer Institute’s clinical trial segment SWOG.

His clinical research interests include understanding the mechanisms of drug resistance in myeloma, on which he has contributed to hundreds of articles, book chapters and conference presentations.

Twitter handle: @Myeloma_Doc

Number of twitter followers: 9,873

5) Matthew Katz

Originally studying history, before turning to medicine, Matthew Katz is a radiation oncologist at Lowell General Hospital in Massachusetts.

In addition to his work treating patients, Katz has founded two blogs, Subatomic doc and Rad Nation, where he shares his own peer-reviewed work and other people’s insights into improving cancer prevention and treatment.

Twitter handle: @subatomicdoc

Number of twitter followers: 17,725

6) Eric Topol

Cardiologist Eric Topol founded the Scripps Research Translational Institute in 2007; he remains its director to this day. This institute joined Scripps Research in 2017, at which point Topol became executive vice-president of the whole company.

His research focus combines genomics, big data and emerging technologies to achieve personalised medicine in oncology and other fields; he has been cited more than 200,000 times on these topics. Topol has recently published a book titled Deep Medicine, looking at the power of artificial intelligence to allow doctors to focus on listening to patients, rather than dealing with administrative tasks.

Twitter handle: @EricTopol

Number of twitter followers: 166,394

7) Lisa Guzzardi

Lisa Guzzardi is a patient advocate who runs a journal club on Facebook, called the BRCA Advanced 101 & 102 Journal Club. The group comprises of academics and clinicians from across the world who share information on studies and articles of relevance to hereditary cancer patients.

Twitter handle: @LguzzardiM

Number of twitter followers: 6,738

8) Barbara Jacoby

Two-time breast cancer survivor Barbara Jacoby is a patient advocate and ambassador who shares her experiences and insight on her own blog Let Life Happen and other media outlets. Her blog has won multiple awards, including being named as Healthline.com’s top breast cancer blog seven years in a row.

On top of her blogging and day job at The Walt Disney Company, Jacoby serves on a number of advisory boards and committees, such as Novartis, DiepC Foundation and the Breast Advocate App, founded by Chrysopoulo.

Twitter handle: @letlifehappen

Number of twitter followers: 23,014

9) Elizabeth O’Riordan

Former breast surgeon Elizabeth O’Riordan was diagnosed with Stage three breast cancer in 2015 and to deal with her predicament she started a cancer blog to track her journey through treatment.

Linked to this, O’Riordan has co-authored a book with Professor Trisha Greenhalgh called ‘The Complete Guide to Breast Cancer with the aim of empowering patients through treatments. She has also given Tedx and key-note speeches about collecting moments of joy while fighting cancer.

Twitter handle: @Liz_ORiordan

Number of twitter followers: 18,287

10) Christina Lizaso

Christina Lizaso is the co-founder of Gyncsm, an online community for people impacted by gynaecologic cancers, including patients, survivors, families or carers of patients and those at high risk of developing these cancers. One of her co-founders is ovarian cancer survivor Dee Sparacio, who ranks 14th on GlobalData’s oncology influencer platform.

Lizaso also blogs for Cure Media, is a digital ambassador at the National Society of Genetic Counselors and is a patient advisor on the board of Clara Health.

Twitter Handle: @btrfly12

Number of twitter followers: 5,823

Methodology

The analysis provided by GlobalData is based on the number of company or organisation mentions, online engagement by influencers, and expert analysis.

A more detailed daily analysis is available for GlobalData subscribers.