Staff Profile

Stephen O'Brien is a Professor of Haematology at Newcastle University and Honorary Consultant in Haematology at the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Following graduation and internal medical experience in Manchester, his training in haematology was undertaken at the Hammersmith Hospital in London where he subsequently completed his PhD under Professor John Goldman. He then worked in Cardiff before settling in Newcastle. He treated the first UK patients to receive Imatinib in September 1999, and continues to be closely involved with ongoing trials with this agent, as well as the newer Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors. Professor O’Brien is the Chief Investigator for the National Cancer Research Network’s SPIRIT trials in Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (www.spirit-cml.org), involving approximately 2,000 patients in 150 UK hospitals. Also, he is a member of the NCRI Haem Onc Clinical Studies Group and CML Working Party and the European Leukaemia Network and Chair of NICE Technology Appraisal Committee C.

1. Clinical trials of imatinib mesylate in CML and other Ph-positive leukaemias. He was the first UK investigator to use this agent and is a member (one of four) of the Study Management Committee for the 0106 (IRIS) study comparing imatinib with IFN and Ara-C in 1106 patients.
2. International lead of phase III SPIRIT 2 study in CML (www.spirit-cml.org). 810 patients, 153 sites.
3. Development of novel diagnostics in partnership with low/middle income countries.
4. Development of apps for clinical medicine.

Undergraduate teaching & tutoring on MBChB course. Postgraduate tutoring and lecturing in haematology.

• Clark RE, Polydoros F, Apperley JF, Milojkovic D, Pocock C, Smith G, Byrne JL, de Lavallade H, O'Brien SG, Coffey T, Foroni L, Copland M. De-escalation of tyrosine kinase inhibitor dose in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia with stable major molecular response (DESTINY): an interim analysis of a non-randomised, phase 2 trial. The Lancet Haematology 2017, 4(7), e310-e316.
• Hochhaus A, Larson RA, Guilhot F, Radich JP, Branford S, Hughes TP, Baccarani M, Deininger MW, Cervantes F, Fujihara S, Ortmann CE, Menssen HD, Kantarjian H, O'Brien SG, Druker BJ. Long-Term Outcomes of Imatinib Treatment for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. New England Journal of Medicine 2017, 376(10), 917-927.
• Clark R, Polydoros F, Apperley J, Pocock C, Smith G, Salim R, Coffey T, O'Brien S, Foroni L, Copland M. De-escalation of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy is safe in chronic myeloid leukaemia in durable molecular response (>= mr3 for >= 12 months): initial results in the British DESTINY study. In: 21st Congress of the European Hematology Association. 2016, Copenhagen, Denmark: Fondazione Ferrata Storti.
• Molyneux E, Schwalbe E, Chagaluka G, Banda K, Israels T, Depani S, Mittermayer-Vassallo K, Windebank K, Mvula J, Njiram'madzi J, O'Brien S, Carey P, Bailey S. The use of anthracyclines in the treatment of endemic Burkitt lymphoma. British Journal of Haematology 2017, 177(6), 984-990.
• Alonso-Dominguez JMI, Grinfeld J, Alikian M, Marin D, Reid A, Daghistani M, Hedgley C, O'Brien S, Clark RE, Apperley J, Foroni L, Gerrard G. PTCH1 expression at diagnosis predicts imatinib failure in chronic myeloid leukaemia patients in chronic phase. American Journal of Hematology 2015, 90(1), 20-26.
• Labeit AM, Copland M, Cork LM, Hedgley CA, Foroni L, Osborne WL, Gills G, Apperley JF, Holyoake TL, Bescoby RV, Pocock C, Zwingers T, Burnell P, Byrne JL, McCullough JH, Goldman JM, Clark RE, O'Brien SG. Assessment of Quality of Life in the NCRI Spirit 2 Study Comparing Imatinib with Dasatinib in Patients with Newly-Diagnosed Chronic Phase Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia. In: 57th ASH Annual Meeting. 2015, Orlando, USA: American Society of Hematology.
• Dickson J, Kennedy N, Cork LM, Foroni L, Hedgley CA, Copland M, Holyoake TL, O'Brien SG, Ramashoye B. Reliable Detection of Abl Tyrosine Kinase Domain Mutations to <1% Using NGS Data Quality Parsing and Corroboration of Overlapping Paired-End Sequences. In: 57th ASH Annual Meeting. 2015, Orlando, USA: American Society of Hematology.
• Osborne WL, O'Brien SG, Hedgley C, Foroni L, Apperley J, Terril P, Rowe P, McCullough J, Holyoake T, Pocock C, Byrne J, Bescoby R, Copland M, Clark R. SPIRIT 2: an NCRI randomised study comparing dasatinib with imatinib in patients with newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukaemia-2 year follow up. In: 55th Annual Scientific Meeting of the British Society for Haematology. 2015, Edinburgh, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Arachchillage DJ, Hurst E, Carey P, Moses S, O'Brien SG, Menne T, Keenan F, Wallis JP. Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis following fludarabine/cyclophosphamide chemotherapy for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. British Journal of Haematology 2014, 166(1), 142-145.
• O'Brien SG, Hedgley C, Adams S, Foroni L, Apperley JF, Holyoake TL, Pocock C, Byrne JL, Seeley LM, Osborne WL, Goldman JM, Copland M, Clark RE. Spirit 2: An NCRI Randomised Study Comparing Dasatinib with Imatinib in Patients with Newly Diagnosed CML. In: 56th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition. 2014, San Francisco, CA: American Society of Hematology.
• O'Brien SG, Clark RE, Hedgley C, Apperley J, Foroni L, Pocock C, Holyoake T, Byrne J, Hodgson C, Osborne W, Copland M, Goldman JM. SPIRIT 2: an NCRI randomised study comparing dasatinib with imatinib in patients with newly diagnosed CML. In: 54th Annual Scientific Meeting of the British Society for Haematology. 2014, Birmingham, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Grinfeld JI, Gerrard G, Alikian M, Alonso-Dominguez J, Ale S, Valgañon M, Nteliopoulos G, White D, Marin D, Hedgley C, O'Brien SG, Clark R, Goldman JM, Milojkovic D, Apperley JF, Foroni L. A common novel splice variant of SLC22A1 (OCT1) is associated with impaired responses to imatinib in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia. British Journal of Haematology 2013, 631-9. In Preparation.
• Neelakantan P, Gerrard G, Lucas C, Milojkovic D, May P, Wang L, Paliompeis C, Bua M, Reid A, Rezvani K, O'Brien SG, Clark R, Goldman J, Marin D. Combining BCR-ABL1 transcript levels at 3 and 6 months in chronic myeloid leukemia: implications for early intervention strategies. 2013, 2739-2742.
• Ali S, Sergeant R, O'Brien SG, Foroni L, Hedgley C, Gerrard G, Milojkovic D, Stringaris K, Khoder A, Alsuliman A, Gilleece M, Gabriel IH, Cooper N, Goldman JM, Apperley JF, Clark RE, Marin D, Rezvani K. Dasatinib may overcome the negative prognostic impact of KIR2DS1 in newly diagnosed patients with chronic myeloid leukemia. Blood 2012, 120(3), 697-698.
• Arachchillage DRJ, Moses S, O'Brien SG, Menne T, Keenan F, Wallis J. Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis following fludarabine/cyclophosphamide chemotherapy for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. In: 52nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the British Society for Haematology. 2012, Glasgow: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Marin D, Gabriel IH, Ahmad S, Foroni L, de Lavallade H, Clark R, O'Brien S, Sergeant R, Hedgley C, Milojkovic D, Khorashad JS, Bua M, Alsuliman A, Khoder A, Stringaris K, Cooper N, Davis J, Goldman JM, Apperley JF, Rezvani K. KIR2DS1 genotype predicts for complete cytogenetic response and survival in newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukemia patients treated with imatinib. Leukemia 2012, 26(2), 296-302.
• Marin DI, Hedgley C, Clark RE, Apperley J, Foroni L, Milojkovic D, Pocock C, Goldman JM, O'Brien S. Predictive value of early molecular response in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia treated with first-line dasatinib. Blood 2012, 291-94.
• McWeeney S, Pemberton L, Loriaux M, Vartanian K, Willis S, Yochum G, Wilmot B, Turpaz Y, Pillai R, Druker B, Snead J, MacPartlin M, O'Brien S, Melo J, Lange T, Harrington C, Deininger M. A gene expression signature of CD34⁺ cells to predict major cytogenetic response in chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia patients treated with imatinib. Blood 2010, 115(2), 315-325.
• Jiang XY, Grant H, Stebbing J, Foroni L, Craddock C, Griffiths M, Clark RE, O'Brien S, Khorashad JS, Gerrard G, Wang LH, Irving J, Wang M, Karran L, Dyer MJS, Forrest DL, Page K, Eaves CJ, Woolfson A. Analysis of BCR-ABL1 Tyrosine Kinase Domain Mutations In Primitive Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Cells Identifies a Unique Mutator Phenotype. In: Blood: 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology. 2010, Orlando, Florida, USA: American Society of Hematology.
• Dickinson AM, Pearce KF, Norden J, O'Brien SG, Holler E, Bickeboller H, Balavarca Y, Rocha V, Kolb HJ, Hromadnikova I, Sedlacek P, Niederwieser D, Brand R, Ruutu T, Apperley J, Szydlo R, Goulmy E, Siegert W, DeWitte T, Gratwohl A. Impact of genomic risk factors on outcome after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia. Haematologica 2010, 922-927.
• Gabriel IH, Marin D, Ahmad S, Foroni L, de Lavallade H, Clark RE, O'Brien S, Sergeant R, Milojkovic D, Bua M, Alsuliman A, Khoder A, Stringaris K, Cooper N, Goldman JM, Apperley JF, Rezvani K. KIR2DS1 Genotype Predicts for Cytogenetic Response, Progression-Free Survival and Overall Survival In Patients with Chronic Phase CML on Imatinib. In: Blood: American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting. 2010, Orlando, Florida, USA: American Society of Hematology.
• O'Brien SG, Vallance SE, Craddock CF, Holyoake TL, Bond E, Burnett AK, Byrne J, Capdeville R, Cavenagh J, Chang J, Clark R, Ferguson J, Green AR, Lafleur F, Lennard AL, Leonard G, Lucas G, McKinnon S, McMullen MF, Milligan DW, Mufti G, Potter M, Rule S, Shepherd P, Smith G, White H, Zaiac M, Goldman JM. PISCES: A phase I/II study to determine the safety, tolerability and efficacy of PEGylated interferon-alpha in combination with imatinib mesylate in patients with chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia. Blood 2003.
• Neylon AJ, O'Brien SG, Szydlo R, Brookes PA, Goldman JM, Middleton PG. IL-4 gene polymorphism and outcome following sibling allogeneic bone marrow transplant. In: Blood: 53rd Annual Meeting and Exposition of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). 2001, Orlando, Florida, USA: American Society of Hematology.
• O'Brien SG. Imatinib for chronic myeloid leukaemia: a NICE mess. Lancet 2001, 358(9296), 1902-1903.
• O'Brien S, Vallance SE, Craddock C, Holyoake TL, Goldman JM, UK PISCES Grp. PEGIntron and STI571 combination evaluation study (PISCES) in chronic phase chronic myeloid leukaemia. In: Blood: 53rd Annual Meeting and Exposition of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). 2001, Orlando, Florida, USA: American Society of Hematology.
• Howel D, O'Brien S, Murphy E, Chinn DJ, McCrone C, French JM, Blain PG. Upper aerodigestive tract cancers in former employees at an iron and steel works. Occupational Medicine 2001, 51(5), 336-342.
• Luger SM, O'Brien SG, Ratajzcak J, Ratajczak MZ, Mick R, Nowell PC, Magee D, Stadtmauer EA, Goldman JM, Gewirtz AM. Bone marrow purging with C-MYB targeted oligodeoxynucleotides: Results, and long term follow-up, of a pilot study in chronic myelogenous leukemia patients. In: BLOOD. 2000.