Close
Professor Mark Emberton awarded OBE in Queen’s Birthday Honours
16 June 2021
Dean of UCL's Faculty of Medical Sciences, Professor Mark Emberton has been recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2021 with an OBE for services to prostate cancer research.
Mark Emberton is Professor of Interventional Oncology at UCL and Honorary Consultant Urologist at University College Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He is also a Founding Pioneer of Prostate Cancer UK. Professor Emberton has authored over 450 peer-reviewed articles on prostate cancer and urology-related topics in scientific journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet and The BMJ. His work has been cited almost 30,000 times.
Transforming prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment
Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men with around 130 new cases diagnosed in the UK every day and more than 10,000 men a year dying as a result of the disease. Traditionally diagnosis of the disease has not been precise - typically clinicians have taken a blood test looking for raised levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and carried out a biopsy. But PSA levels are not a reliable indicator of prostate cancer and biopsies can be inaccurate. To address this, Prof Emberton and colleagues at UCL and UCLH have been developing the use of MRI to more accurately identify prostate cancer. Their ground-breaking research has led to changes in clinical practice in the UK and internationally.
Currently, the ReIMAGINE project (funded by MRC and CRUK), led by Prof Emberton and researchers at UCL and UCLH - and working with researchers at Imperial College and Kings College London - is using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to change how prostate cancer is diagnosed and treated.
International research has shown that MRI imaging technology can markedly and safely reduce the numbers of men needing an invasive biopsy. This research recently led to changes in NICE guidelines with MRI now recommended as the first test for men referred to hospital by their GP.
As part of ReIMAGINE the study team want to see if MRI could also be an effective tool for screening men, in the same way there are national NHS screening programmes to detect signs of breast or cervical cancer.
Speaking of the award, Professor Emberton said: “We are very fortunate to have been able to work with some truly exceptional colleagues here at UCL and at our partner hospitals in order to improve the care of men with prostate cancer."
“But most of all I would like to thank the many thousands of patients that have placed their trust in us and have chosen to participate in our many clinical studies, knowing that by doing so they would help to improve the outcomes for the men that would follow.”
Further information
- Prof Mark Emberton academic profile
- UCL News: Targeted screening for prostate cancer could prevent on in six deaths.
- ReIMAGINE consortium
- UCL News: Prostate cancer guidelines changed to reflect UCL trial findings
- Prostate Cancer UK
UCL Medical Sciences Public Lecture
Prof Mark Emberton talks about how using MRI has improved clinical pathways for diagnosing and treating prostate cancer: 'How UCL revolutionised prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment for men.'
#MadeAtUCL podcast
Mark Emberton talks to recent UCL graduate Suzie McCarthy, about the ground-breaking research he has been doing to improve how we test and treat prostate cancer. Season 1, Episode 4: MAPS
