Fiona ThistlethwaiteClinician

Biography

Professor Fiona Thistlethwaite (MB BChir PhD MRCP) is a Medical Oncology Consultant within the Experimental Cancer Medicine Team (ECMT) at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and Honorary Professor of Experimental Immunotherapy at the University of Manchester. She graduated from the University of Cambridge MB PhD programme in 1999 and became a consultant at The Christie in 2007 following training posts at Liverpool Royal, the Royal Marsden and The Christie. Her clinical practice is in Experimental Cancer Medicine and immune-oncology, with an academic focus on clinical trial development in immunotherapy and adoptive T-cell therapy. She is Medical Director of the NIHR Manchester Clinical Research Facility, which supports over 500 early-phase clinical trials across six Manchester sites, and Director of iMATCH (Innovate Manchester Advanced Therapy Centre Hub), a consortium that secured £17.9 million in NIHR funding renewal in 2024 to scale up cell and gene therapy clinical trials. She also chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of Target Ovarian Cancer.

References

1. 1.Consultant: Professor Fiona Thistlethwaite | The Christie NHS Foundation Trust — Current role titles, clinical and academic focus, career history, iMATCH and CRF leadership
2. 2.Fiona Thistlethwaite | ESMO — Senior leadership positions, £17.9M iMATCH NIHR funding, 500+ trials CRF, ESMO Track Chair 2024, North Innovation Woman 2025, SAB chair roles
3. 3.New Co-Director Appointment – Professor Fiona Thistlethwaite | NIHR Manchester CRF — Appointment as Co-Director of NIHR Manchester Clinical Research Facility (November 2025)
4. 4.£18m funding for iMATCH research | The Christie — iMATCH securing £17.9M NIHR funding renewal in 2024 under Thistlethwaite's leadership
5. 5.Welcoming Professor Fiona Thistlethwaite as the new Chair of our Scientific Advisory Board | Target Ovarian Cancer

Expertise

Cited on

• Cancer

Stated areas of expertise

• Immuno-oncology
• Adoptive cell and T-cell therapy
• Early-phase clinical trials
• Cell and gene therapy access
• Cancer clinical research infrastructure
• Ovarian cancer research

Notable achievements

• Led the iMATCH consortium to secure a share of £17.9 million NIHR funding renewal in 2024 for the Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre network, providing four further years of support for cell and gene therapy clinical trials across the UK. Source ↗
• Appointed Co-Director of the NIHR Manchester Clinical Research Facility in November 2025, a facility supporting over 500 early-phase clinical trials across six sites in Manchester. Source ↗
• Appointed Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of Target Ovarian Cancer, leading expert oversight of the charity's research programme. Source ↗
• Served as Track Chair for Investigational Immunotherapy at the ESMO Congress Scientific Committee in 2024. Source ↗
• Named a 'North Innovation Woman' by the Northern Health Science Alliance in 2025. Source ↗

What they’ve said

• “For a drug that is given as a tablet, this is very impressive. It's early days, and we need further studies, but this is a new drug with a new mechanism that clearly helps immunotherapy perform more effectively.”

  consultant medical oncologist and medical director of the Christie clinical research facility · Cancer · 27 Aug 2026 · Smart drug that strips cancer cells of ‘invisibility cloak’ can shrink tumours by 30%, trial shows ↗

• “For a drug that is given as a tablet, this is very impressive. It's early days, and we need further studies, but this is a new drug with a new mechanism that clearly helps immunotherapy perform more effectively.”

  Principal investigator of GRWD5769 trial at Christie NHS foundation trust · Cancer · 27 Aug 2026 · Removing ‘invisibility cloaks’ and safely skipping chemo: new weapons in war on cancer shared at US conference ↗

Source references

1. Smart drug that strips cancer cells of ‘invisibility cloak’ can shrink tumours by 30%, trial showstheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
2. Removing ‘invisibility cloaks’ and safely skipping chemo: new weapons in war on cancer shared at US conferencetheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Contact & links

• Staff pagehttps://christie.nhs.uk/your-treatment-and-care/find-your-consultant/thistlethwaite-fiona
• Staff pagehttps://manchestercrf.nihr.ac.uk/professor-fiona-thistlethwaite/
• Staff pagehttps://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/fiona-thistlethwaite/
• Press office emailthe-christie.press.office@nhs.netpublished here ↗

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