Justin Stebbing

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Justin Stebbing is an NIHR Research Professor of Cancer Medicine and Oncology at Imperial College London specializing in immunotherapy for breast, gastrointestinal, and lung cancers.^[1] He graduated with a first class degree from Trinity College, Oxford. After completion of junior doctor positions in Oxford, he trained as on the residency programme at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US, returning to London to continue his career in oncology at The Royal Marsden and then St Bartholomew's Hospitals. Professor Stebbing's original PhD research investigated the interplay between the immune system and cancer. In 2007 he was appointed a senior lecturer, and then in 2009 a Professor, at Imperial College London.^[1]

He has published over 650 peer-reviewed papers in academic journals ^[2] and has an h-index of 74 according to Google Scholar^[3] He is an Editor-in-Chief of the journal Oncogene.^[4] He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians,^{[citation needed]} the American Society for Clinical Investigation^[5] and the Royal College of Pathologists.^{[citation needed]} The charity Action Against Cancer was set up to support Justin's work which concentrates on drug development and has the ambitious goal of developing cures.^[6]

In cancer, some of his most cited papers include the discovery of the role of the oncogene LMTK3 across malignancies, the network of microRNAs induced by the estrogen receptor, and extensive work on HIV and AIDS cancers.^{[7][8][9][10]} In additions to his global contributions to cancer research including extensive work on biosimilars, cheaper versions of expensive biologic drugs designed to democratise access to these around the world in 2020 at the start of the pandemic.^[11]

In addition to his global contributions to cancer research including new discoveries on stem cells, new cancer genes, biomarkers and also biosimilar studies.^[1] Professor Justin Stebbing made a global contribution to millions of lives by leveraging an artificial intelligence programme to identify baricitinib as a drug for the treatment of COVID-19 in early 2020.^[12] Uniquely this had antiviral and anti-cytokine properties. He led the global studies that showed that the drug reduced mortality in Covid patients with pneumonia — which led to the drug being authorised by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2020 at first in combination with remdesivir, then alone.^[13] His original Lancet papers have been cited >1000 times, and recent editorials in the New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet Respiratory Medicine describe this further, along with the major studies he led .^[14] The book, ‘Witness to COVID, 2020’ ^[15] was written by Justin Stebbing describing its discovery, trials,^[16] studies and approval.^[17]

In 2020, Professor Justin Stebbing was investigated by the General Medical Council over allegations that he failed to provide adequate care to eleven out of thousands of patients he had cared for over many years. During the investigation it found that only two of those cases had the patient's family or their solicitor complained, and that other cases were postulated to have been originated by a medical insurance company. Thousands of people rallied in support of Professor Stebbing and many of the testimonials were from patients who were still alive and had come to him as referrals from other oncologists after being told "to go home and die". Testimonials from hundreds of colleagues about Professor Justin Stebbing's performance cited no complaints or claims against him. These included renowned medics and scientists from the UK and around the world who wrote in support of Professor Stebbing, stressing the loss to both patients, science and humanity if he were unable to work. Documents published by the MPTS showed the panel rejected erasing Professor Stebbing from the medical register, with testimonial support frequently referring to his work as ‘genius’ or ‘unprecedented’ and instead decided on a nine-month suspension as there was a public interest in permitting him to return to practice “as soon as possible”.^[18]

In January 2022, following Professor Stebbing's pivotal original papers and the subsequent global trials, the World Health Organization placed baricitinib at the top of its evidence base to treat COVID, giving it its highest recommendation.^[19][20][21] This has also been made free to countries around the world as they have struggled with numbers of patients, considering it is a simple once daily tablet with few drug-drug interactions, side effects, has dose flexibility, a short half-life and is cheap as his work here has outlined.^[22][23][24]

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