John R Zalcberg OAM (MB BS, PhD, FRACP, FRACMA, FAHMS, FAICD)
Professor John Zalcberg is the Head of Cancer Research and NHMRC (MRFF) Practitioner Fellow within the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University and Tony Charlton Chair of Oncology at Alfred Health. He is also the current Chair of the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA).
Previously, he was the Director of the Cancer Medicine Division as well as the Chief Medical Officer at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
After earning a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Melbourne and a PhD in cancer immunology, he served as Director of Medical Oncology at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital and as Director of Cancer Services at the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre.
A co-founder of the Lorne Cancer Conference and the Australasian Gastrointestinal Trials Group (AGITG), his past roles included Chair of the Board of AGITG, Board Member of Cancer Trials Australia, Co-Chair of the Cancer Drugs Alliance, Board Member of the NSW Cancer Institute, Board Member of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, President of the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia, as well as a past Member of the Consultative Council of the Victorian Cancer Agency.
His awards include a Medal of the Order of Australia Award (OAM) in 2007, the 2011 Cancer Achievement Award from the Medical Oncology Group of Australia, the 2015 Tom Reeve Award for outstanding contribution to cancer care from the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia (COSA) and in 2019 he received the Red Cross Distinguished Service Award. In 2014, the AGITG announced the annual “John Zalcberg OAM Award for Excellence in Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Trials Group (AGITG) Research” in his honour.
Professor Zalcberg’s clinical research interests include gastrointestinal cancer, health care improvement and new drug development, and he has published more than 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He was a Principal Investigator for the EORTC advanced GIST trial in Australia and continues an active involvement in trials in this disease as well as other gastrointestinaI (GI) cancers. He also continues an active clinical practice in GI cancer.