Five Decades in Cancer with Prof. Karol Sikora: What's Changed, What Hasn't, What's Coming

Prof. Karol Sikora brings an extraordinary perspective to cancer care, shaped by a career that spans from Cambridge laboratories to the World Health Organization's cancer headquarters. The son of a Polish Army officer and Scottish schoolteacher, Sikora obtained a double first at Cambridge before training under Nobel Laureate Sydney Brenner. His journey took him from Stanford to the Ludwig Institute, and eventually to directing the WHO Cancer Programme—a position he famously resigned from in 1999, declaring their restructuring would create a "top-heavy bureaucracy".

As Clinical Director for Cancer Services at Hammersmith Hospital for 12 years and Professor at Imperial College School of Medicine for over two decades, Sikora has witnessed medicine's most dramatic transformation firsthand. He's authored over 500 papers and 20 books, including the standard British postgraduate oncology textbook "Treatment of Cancer," and recently published "Cancer: The Key to Getting the Best Care – Making the System Work for You."

As Founding Dean of the University of Buckingham's medical school—Britain's first independent medical school—and creator of the Rutherford Cancer Centres with proton beam capability, Sikora continues to pioneer new approaches to cancer care while serving as senior medical advisor to cancer centers from Abu Dhabi to the Caribbean.

In this remarkable conversation, Professor Sikora draws on half a century of experience to reveal why cancer rates in young people are mysteriously doubling, how AI will transform oncology despite current overhype, and why "delay kills" in modern healthcare systems.