Speakers

International Speaker

Professor Tom John
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia

Prof Tom John is a Medical Oncologist specialising in thoracic malignancies such as lung cancer and mesothelioma. He is a deputy director of the medical oncology service. He has completed a genomics based PhD and then a postdoctoral fellowship in Toronto before returning to Melbourne in 2010. Tom John has led several clinical trials including Phase I up to Phase III studies. Some of these have changed the landscape of therapies available for lung cancer today and have been published in prominent journals such as the NEJM.

His translational research has focused on mesothelioma, with several important studies investigating antibody drug conjugates, antiapoptotics and, more recently genomic diversity and circulating tumour DNA in this disease. He is on faculty for the lung tumour track for the European Society of Medical Oncology, an associate editor for the Journal of Thoracic Oncology and, chair the Scientific Committee for the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia.

National Speakers

Dr Laird Cameron

Dr Cameron is a Medical Oncologist specialising in lung, mesothelioma and head & neck malignancies. Since completing a clinical fellowship at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre he has been treating patients with lung cancer at Auckland Hospital and Canopy Cancer Care.

He leads the medical oncology lung team at Te Puriri o Te Ora in Auckland and is a Senior Lecturer at  the University of Auckland.

Laird is the NZ representative for Thoracic Oncology Group Australasia (TOGA, formerly ALTG), chair of the New Zealand Lung Oncology Special Interest Group (NZ LOSIG) and vice president of NZ Society for Oncology.

Di Keip

Di Keip MN, RN is the Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) for thoracic malignancy in Hawkes Bay. She is one of the original CNS Cancer Coordinators which means she’s been in this job since 2013. She has a particular interest in communication skills acquisition in oncology, and whether resilience-enhancing programmes prevent mental health injury in the workplace.

Her background is palliative care nursing followed by 7 years in the DHB corporate office writing strategies and developing plans around managing many LTC.

She rides her bike to work for exercise, runs for her mental health and does adventurous outdoor activity to amuse and entertain her three adult sons.

Professor Ross Lawrenson

Professor Lawrenson is Professor of Population Health and Director of Medicine at the University of Waikato.

He is a Cancer epidemiologist with an interest in the impact of primary care on cancer outcomes.


The national speaker information will be updated on a regular basis. In the meantime, you can refer to the programme  for more details.