Theme Co-Lead for Liver Disease, Multimorbidity and Lifestyle
Helen Reeves is the Professor of Liver Cancer in the Newcastle University Translational Clinical Research Institute and Cancer Centre. She is also an Honorary Consultant Hepatologist in Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where she leads an innovative clinical team, delivering outstanding clinical care and guidance for UK patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). She trained in medicine at Nottingham University Medical School, before moving to Newcastle as a junior doctor, securing a Welcome Trust Clinical Training Fellowship to complete a PhD, and subsequently an American Association for Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) fellowship as a post-doctoral scientist at Mount Sinai in New York. In 2003 she returned to Newcastle as a GSK Senior Clinician Scientist, where she established the liver cancer service alongside a translational research program.
Prof Reeves established obesity associated liver disease, termed MASLD, as the underlying cause of dramatic increases in HCC in the North of England, now recognised globally. She has defined the characteristics of patients with MASLD-HCC, highlighting their late detection associated with multiple comorbidities and the limitations of therapeutic options. Her research programme has focused on the identification of genetic risk factors and pathophysiological mechanisms, for early detection and prevention, as well as personalised approaches to treatment. She established the EU FP7 funded ‘FLIP’ – Fatty Liver Inhibition of Progression Biobank in Newcastle in 2010. She has programme and Accelerator awards from Cancer Research UK, leading the hepatocellular carcinoma expediter network (HUNTER) with colleagues in UK, Spain and Italy. She is the UK lead for the recently awarded EU Consortium THRIVE – Tumour Host interactions in Liver Cancer in Children and Adults. She supervises 7 PhD students, all focused on translational research to improve outcomes for patients with liver cancer. She has served on both the European Association for Study of the Liver (EASL) Governing Board and Education committee. She was a founding member of both the International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA) and the HCC-UK group. She presently serves on the ILCA patient advisory group and the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) Liver Committee. She is an advisor for LiverNorth, the British Liver Trust and the creator of the livingwithlivercancer.co.uk patient support website.