Professor Peter Schmid
Centre Lead: Experimental Cancer Medicine
Professor of Cancer Medicine
Director, Barts Breast Cancer Centre
Overview
My research interests focus on improving the care of women with breast cancer through clinical trials. I lead a spectrum of clinical studies spanning the spectrum of the disease and ranging from phase I to randomised phase III. The majority of these studies are translational phase II studies investigating novel targeted and immune therapies. Our current interests include cancer immune therapy combinations across all stages and subtypes of breast cancer, novel targeted agents and antibody-drug conjugates - alone or in combination - to overcome resistance, and innovative biomarker-driven trial concepts (including a preoperative window of opportunity platform to evaluate novel immunotherapy combinations in breast cancer).
Research
Professor Schmid’s research is focused on improving the care of women with breast cancer through clinical trials. He is investigating a variety of novel agents that target specific pathways within cancer cells and the surrounding tissue. Professor Schmid runs an international clinical and translational research programme spanning the spectrum of the disease and ranging from phase I to randomised phase III. The majority of the studies incorporate translational research endpoints to improve our understanding of molecular factors that may elucidate mechanisms of action and predictors of treatment effect; this includes a programme on the impact of the microbiome on patient outcomes.
His current research interests include cancer immune therapy combinations across all stages and subtypes of breast cancer, novel targeted agents and antibody-drug conjugates – alone or in combination – to overcome resistance, and innovative biomarker-driven trial concepts (including a preoperative window of opportunity platform to evaluate novel immunotherapy combinations in breast cancer).
Professor Schmid is the lead investigator of several international, pivotal breast cancer studies on novel targeted therapeutics to improve the treatment of both early and late stage breast cancer. He was the lead investigator of the Impassion130 trial that evaluated atezolizumab for advanced triple-negative breast cancer and lead to the approval of the first immunotherapy strategy for patients with breast cancer, establishing a new standard of care for this disease. He was also the lead investigator of the KEYNOTE-522 trial which established the addition of the immune-checkpoint inhibitor Pembrolizumab to preoperative chemotherapy as a new standard for patients with stage II or III triple-negative breast cancer based on a 37% reduction in recurrences of this aggressive subtype of breast cancer.
Professor Schmid’s work has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Lancet Oncology, JAMA Oncology, Nature Communications and the Journal of Clinical Oncology. He has grant income from national and international funding bodies.
Prof Schmid is a member of several national and international cancer organisations and research groups. He has been involved in international consensus meetings and is co-author of international guidelines on the management of breast cancer. Professor Peter Schmid is Chair of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) breast cancer faculty and he is part of the faculty for the major global oncology meetings.
Key Publications
Pembrolizumab for Early Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. N Engl J Med (2020) 382(9):810-821. PMID: 32101663
Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy versus placebo plus chemotherapy for previously untreated locally recurrent inoperable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (KEYNOTE-355): a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, phase 3 clinical trial. Lancet (2020) 396(10265):1817-1828. PMID: 33278935
Atezolizumab plus nab-paclitaxel as first-line treatment for unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (IMpassion130): updated efficacy results from a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol (2020) 21(1):44-59. PMID: 31786121
Atezolizumab and Nab-Paclitaxel in Advanced Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. N Engl J Med (2018) 379(22):2108-2121. PMID: 30345906
See recent publications
Major Funding
- BARBICAN: A randomised, open-label Phase II study to determine the contribution of ipatasertib to neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus atezolizumab in women with TNBC (CI). Roche, 2018-2022
- ECLIPSE: A phase II trial investigating preoperative combination strategies for immunotherapy in patients with operable, ER-positive, HER2-negative primary breast cancer (CI). Roche, 2017-2022
- Barts Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (PI). Cancer Research UK and NIHR. 2017-2022, £2M
- Comprehensive Analysis of Circulating Biomarkers in breast cancer patients (CI). Barts Charity, 2015-2022, £499,652
Other Activities
- Clinical director, Barts Breast Cancer Centre, St Bartholomew’s Hospital
- Chair, European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) breast cancer faculty
- Scientific committee/faculty for the major global oncology meetings
- ECMC strategy group and ECMC Intelligence Steering Committee
- Clinical Expert for the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), nominated by the Royal College of Physicians
- International guidelines for breast cancer
Biography
Professor Schmid is the clinical director of the Breast Cancer Centre and an honorary consultant medical oncologist at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He was appointed in 2013 as Chair in Cancer Medicine at Barts Cancer Institute (BCI), Queen Mary University London. Professor Schmid is the Lead of the Centre of Experimental Cancer Medicine at BCI, overseeing the conduct of early phase trials at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and BCI. He leads the academic breast cancer programme at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and BCI.
Professor Schmid trained in medicine in Munich and Aberdeen. He was awarded scholarships by the ‘Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes’ (German Academic Scholarship Foundation), the ‘Hanns-Seidel-Foundation’, and the ‘Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst’ (German Academic Exchange Service). He graduated from the Technical University of Munich medical school in 1997, gaining a MD in Clinical Chemistry in 1998 from the University of Munich and a Clinical Research PhD in 2005 from Charité University in Berlin.
Prof Schmid trained at the University Hospital Charité in Berlin in internal medicine, haematology, and oncology, before he became a Senior Clinical Lecturer and Director of the Hammersmith Early Clinical Trials Unit at Imperial College London in 2005. Professor Schmid was appointed as Foundation Chair in Cancer Medicine at the University of Sussex in 2010, before taking on his current role at BCI in 2013.
Related News
Groundbreaking trials reveal improved survival for two hard-to-treat cancers
Prof Tom Powles and Prof Peter Schmid announced practice-changing results at ESMO 2024
Conferences 16 September 2024
International Clinical Trials Day – how Barts clinical trials are changing cancer care
To mark International Clinical Trials Day 2024, we’re spotlighting some of our clinical trial work and how it is helping to transform the lives of people with cancer.
General News 20 May 2024
Immunotherapy significantly reduces recurrence in aggressive breast cancer
An immunotherapy drug called ‘pembrolizumab’ has been shown to significantly reduce disease recurrence in patients with the most aggressive type of breast cancer, according to results from a phase III clinical trial led by Professor Peter Schmid from Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust.
In the Media 10 February 2022
Research highlighted in ASCO annual report on progress against cancer
Research led by Professors Peter Schmid and Thomas Powles from Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, has been selected by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for inclusion in the Clinical Cancer Advances 2021, the Society’s annual review of progress against cancer. The notable studies, which investigated the use of immunotherapy in the treatment of triple negative breast cancer and advanced bladder cancer, are featured as two of many remarkable milestones in clinical cancer research and care.
General News 2 February 2021
Immune therapy reduces risk of recurrence in aggressive breast cancer
An immune therapy for the most aggressive form of breast cancer can substantially reduce the risk of the disease returning, according to a clinical trial led by Professor Peter Schmid of Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London.
General News 27 February 2020
KEYNOTE-522: Immune therapy for breast cancer
Results of an interim analysis from the KEYNOTE-522 trial have shown a treatment combination of immunotherapy plus chemotherapy to improve response rates in patients with early triple-negative breast cancer. Prof Peter Schmid presented the results at the ESMO Congress 2019 in Barcelona, Spain.
Conferences 30 September 2019
New phase III clinical trial using combination therapy extends survival in triple-negative breast cancer
Research provides new hope for people with an aggressive type of breast cancer.
General News 22 October 2018
Immunotherapy shows promise for patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer
Immunotherapy has been shown to confer an encouraging survival benefit in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC).
General News 17 October 2018