Understanding sarcomas and other rare tumors: an interview with Robin L Jones

Robin L Jones speaks to Jade Parker, Commissioning Editor: Robin Jones is a medical oncologist specializing in the treatment of bone and soft tissue sarcomas and Head of the Sarcoma Unit at The Royal Marsden. He completed his medical training at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, and his oncology training at The Royal Marsden. His postgraduate research degree, with Professor Dowsett at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), evaluated potential predictive and prognostic factors in breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In January 2010 he was appointed Associate Professor and Director of the Sarcoma Program at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. He led a successful, grant funded program and continued his translational and clinical trial-based research. The laboratory work with Dr Seth Pollack evaluated novel immunotherapeutic targets in bone and soft tissue sarcomas, and has led to a number of early-phase immunotherapeutic clinical trials in sarcoma. He returned to The Royal Marsden and Institute of Cancer Research in December 2014, as Sarcoma Clinical Trials Team Leader and Consultant Medical Oncologist. He has experience in conducting Phase I, II and III trials, as well as translational studies in sarcoma. He is continuing a number of trials of investigational agents as well as laboratory-based immunotherapy studies.