Speakers

Ahti Anttila serves as a cancer epidemiologist and is the Director of Research of the Mass Screening Registry of the Finnish Cancer Registry, Helsinki. He is also an adjunct professor in epidemiology at the School of Public Health, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. His research activities involve environmental and occupational risk factors and prevention of cancer, and evaluation of cancer screening programmes. Dr Anttila is an editor of the current second edition of the EU Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Cervical Cancer Screening and an editor of the supplements to the guidelines on HPV testing and HPV vaccination, currently being developed in a project coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer

Conflicts of interest
Dr Anttila has disclosed no significant conflicts of interest.

Jean-Pierre Armand, certified in medical oncology, is General Director of the Institut Claudius Regaud, Toulouse. Dr Armand is presently in charge of the construction of a new cancer centre in a European research hub created on the Toulouse cancer campus. He is an active member of the medical oncology community. Previously Head of Early Clinical New Drugs Programs and Medical Director of Research and Development at the Institut Gustave-Roussy, Villejuif, Dr Armand has been involved in phase I-II and phase III studies for the treatment of solid tumours. Dr Armand is active in the European Organization of Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and was past chairman of the EORTC protocol review committee. At the EMEA French Agency (AFSSAPS) he is the representative of oncology at the AMM Commission, in charge of the approval of anticancer agents. Dr Armand has also held the following positions: President of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO); Medical Director of the Federation of European Cancer Societies (FECS); and President of the French Cancer Society (SFC). He is also a member of the international boards of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the scientific committee of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and AACR, the board for clinical trials at Institut National du Cancer (INCa), and is chairman of the president nominating committee of ESMO. He has coauthored more than 300 medical and scientific publications and is a member of the editorial boards of Annals of Oncology, the European Journal of Cancer, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Investigational New Drugs, Anticancer Research, and Clinical Cancer Research. In 2008, he received the Esmo Award for "European oncologist of the year".

Conflicts of interest
Dr Armand has disclosed no significant conflicts of interest.

James A Bonner is the Merle M Salter Professor and Chairman for the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Alabama, Birmingham School of Medicine, Birmingham, Alabama. Dr Bonner is affiliated with University of Alabama Hospitals, and the Veterans Administration Hospital. He graduated summa cum laude in chemistry from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, and received his medical degree from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. He completed his radiation oncology training at the University of Michigan Hospital, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Subsequently, he completed a research fellowship in the Division of Radiation Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Dr Bonner was a faculty member at the Mayo Clinic for 8 years prior to moving to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). While at the Mayo Clinic, the Mayo Fellows Association named him Teacher of the Year in Radiation Oncology in 1994 and 1996, and he was Co-Chair of the Lung Cancer Program of the Mayo-North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG) from 1994 to1998. At UAB, he has co-chaired the Experimental Therapeutics section in the cancer center since 1998. Dr. Bonner has had a long research interest in methods of enhancing radiosensitisation, such as combinations of chemotherapy or targeted therapy with radiotherapy. His current laboratory interests are directed at the development of single chain antibodies that target the epidermal growth factor receptor and can be delivered in a gene therapy approach. He has been the principal investigator of several clinical protocols and has published more than 250 manuscripts or abstracts. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Radiology and the National Board of Medical Examiners.

Conflicts of interest
Dr Bonner has made the following disclosure:
Occasional consulting and honorarium: Bristol-Myers Squibb; ImClone Systems; Oncolytics

Kevin J Cullen is Director of the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center. Dr Cullen, who specialises in head and neck cancer, is a professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and is head of its programme in oncology. He came to the University of Maryland in January, 2004. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Medical School, Dr Cullen completed his internship and residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and received additional training at the National Cancer Institute. He served as interim director of the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University from October, 2000, to September, 2002, and was professor of medicine, oncology, and otolaryngology at Georgetown University School of Medicine. In 2008, the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center received NCI Cancer Centre designation. In the same year it was named one of the top 50 cancer centres in America by US News and World Report.

Conflicts of interest
Dr Cullen has made the following disclosure:
Research supported in part by a grant from Sanofi Aventis.

Dr D'Souza is an epidemiologist whose research focuses on infectious causes of cancer, primarily human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. She received her PhD in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins in 2006. Additionally, Dr D'Souza has a Master of Science in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1999) and a Masters of Public Health in disease control from the University of Texas-Houston (2002). Dr D'Souza is currently an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr D'Souza's research includes evaluation of etiological heterogeneity among patients with head and neck cancer and the causal role of HPV in these cancers. Current research evaluates the natural history of oral HPV, transmission between partners, risk factors for persistent infection, and the effects of HIV-related immunosupression on infection. Dr D'Souza also studies anogenital HPV natural history and cofactors, the benefits.

Conflicts of interest
Dr D'Souza has made the following disclosure:
Received research support from and is a member of a scientific advisory board for Merck Inc.

Maura Gillison is a head and neck medical oncologist and molecular epidemiologist recruited at Johns Hopkins. Dr Gillison has made significant research contributions to the fields of tumour virology, cancer biology, and epidemiology, and was the first to make the association between HPV and oral cancer. In 2009, Dr Gillison presented data at ASCO 2009 showing that HPV is the most important predictor of clinical response to tumour therapy status and prognosis for patients with head and neck cancers. As a result of these data, the National Cancer Institute has recommended that all clinical trials involving head and neck cancer be stratified by tumour HPV status. Dr Gillison has published extensively in journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of The National Cancer Institute, and the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Dr Gillison is NCI R01 and R21 funded and holds the newly created Jeg Coughlin Chair for Cancer Research in the OSUCCC.

Conflicts of interest
Dr Gillison has disclosed no conflicts of interest.

Dr Jenson specialises in clinical infectious diseases and virology. He has an MD from George Washington University School of Medicine and completed a paediatric residency at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and a fellowship in paediatric infectious diseases at Yale University School of Medicine. He was a visiting fellow in molecular biology in 1984 at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Cambridge, UK. In 2003, he graduated with an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr Jenson has been Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology and Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas; Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Director of the Center for Pediatric Research at Eastern Virginia Medical School and Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia; and is currently Chief Academic Officer at Baystate Medical Center, and Professor of Pediatrics and Dean of the Western Campus of Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr Jenson is active in education and clinical activities in paediatric infectious diseases. His research focused on the molecular biology and clinical aspects of infections, especially Epstein-Barr virus and human herpesvirus type 8 and their associated cancers. He has authored more than 250 papers, commentaries, and book chapters, and is an associate editor of Infectious Disease Alert and an editor of Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics.

Conflicts of interest
Dr Jenson has declared no significant conflicts of interest.

Dr Lassen has an MD from University of Copenhagen Denmark, and is currently doing her specialist training in radiation oncology and medical oncology in the department of oncology at Aarhus University Hospital Denmark. Dr Lassen's research focus is how HPV might affect the outcome for patients with head and neck cancer treated with primary radiotherapy and, moreover, to what extent response to the specific radiobiological modifications of radiotherapy might depend on the HPV-status of the tumours. She is expected to receive her PhD in that research field by June, 2010.

Conflicts of interest
Dr Lassen has declared no conflicts of interest.

Matti Lehtinen is a professor of public health at the University of Tampere School of Public Health, and a research professor at the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland. He received his MD in 1983 and PhD in 1985 from the University of Tampere, where he also received professorship qualifications in virology (1991) and epidemiology (2004). He also received awards for best group teacher, best PhD thesis, and assistant professor of the year. In 1994, Dr Lehtinen founded the Nordic Biological Specimen Banks on Cancer Causes and Control (NBSBCCC). He is currently the primary investigator for phase III-IV trials in 60 000 adolescents on safety, efficacy, and effectiveness of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, and a C. trachomatis/HPV screening trial in 120 000 adolescents. Dr Lehtinen has been a member of the editorial boards of the Open Vaccine Journal, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Journal of Clinical Virology. He has published more than 200 original articles and reviews in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and has written or contributed to over 30 text books.

Conflicts of interest
Dr Lehtinen has received grants for his HPV vaccination studies from Merck & Co. Inc., and GSK Biologicals through his employers.

Lisa Licitra is a medical oncologist, with special expertise in the treatment of head and neck cancers. She is currently assistant physician in charge of the head and neck cancer medical oncology unit at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori in Milan, Italy. Dr Licitra is a free-contract professor at the State University of Milan; a member of the clinical editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology; Editor of State of the Art Oncology in Europe (START), a project of the Alleanza Contro il Cancro, Ministry of Health, Italy; a reviewer of the PDQ Summaries on head and neck cancers; a board member of the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC); and elected chair of the Head and Neck Cancer Cooperative Group of EORTC. She is also co-founder and member of the Italian Group for the Evaluation of Outcomes in Oncology (IGEO), a member of the educational committee of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), chair of the Head and Neck Faculty of ESMO, co-founder and member of the European Head and Neck Cancer Society, a member of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), a member of the Italian Association for Medical Oncology (AIOM), and honorary member of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO). Her main fields of interest are head and neck neoplasms, evidence-based medicine, clinical methodology in oncology, and quality of life. Dr Licitra has written five book chapters and approximately 70 scientific articles.

Conflicts of interest
Dr Licitra has made the following disclosure:
Consultant/advisor: BMS, Glaxo, Lilly, Merk-Serono, Amgen
Research funding: EISAI, Exelixis, Lilly, Merk-Serono, Amgen
Travel expenses to attend medical meetings: Merk Serono.

Ian C Martin is a consultant maxillofacial surgeon and the clinical director of head and neck surgery in Sunderland. His main clinical interest is the surgical management of head and neck cancer, including microvascular reconstruction. He is chairman of the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, president elect of the British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists and clinical coordinator for surgery at the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death. He is vice president of the Federation of Specialist Surgical Associations and an invited member of Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He also has a medico-legal interest and a degree in law, and is president elect of the North of England Medico-Legal Society. In his spare time Ian is an enthusiastic aviator, and a flying instructor in Newcastle.

Conflicts of interest
Mr Ian Martin has declared no conflicts of interest.

Professor Tim (RTD) Oliver gained his medical degree in 1966 from Cambridge University, did his research degree with Professor Hilliard Festenstein and Jean Dausset on the biology of histocompatibility antigens in transplantation and disease, and was Professor in Medical Oncology at St Barts and The London Medical School QMUL. He published over 500 papers on immunotherapy and chemotherapy of Urological and Genital cancer. Since 1995, Professor Oliver has focused on treatment of early cancer of the prostate and testis as well as trials minimising toxic effects of treatment. He retired from the NHS in 2006, but continues to follow up patients recruited to his research trials and pursue his interests in prevention of cancer though his current position as Professor Emeritus within the medical school working with the departments of general practice and sports medicine involved in dissecting the differential health benefits of exercise and sunshine in cancer prevention.

Conflicts of interest
Professor Oliver has declared no significant conflicts of interest.

Jorma Paavonen is a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Helsinki, and is the physician-in-chief for the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland. Professor Paavonen's research programmes focus on sexually transmitted diseases (particularly chlamydial and HPV infections), prevention of preterm birth, HPV vaccination, levonorgestrel-releasing hormone system (LNG-IUS) in the treatment of menorrhagia, vulvar pain syndrome, abnormal placentation, and others. Major activities include undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and clinical work, both as an obstetrician and a consultant gynaecologist. He is currently the principal investigator for the Women's Health research programme and the principal investigator of the global phase 3 and phase 4 HPV vaccination efficacy trials. He is also a member of the Board of the Biomedicum Helsinki Research Institute. Since 1978, Prof Paavonen has authored more than 400 scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals (H-Index 48). His most recent major publications are on HPV vaccination, Chlamydia-associated infertility, preterm delivery, and placental abruption. He is or has been the associate editor or editorial board member of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Sexually Transmitted Infections, Infectious Diseases in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and International Journal of STD & AIDS.

Conflicts of interest
Professor Paavonen has made the following disclosure:
Receipt of funding from Merck Co. and GlaxoSmithKline Co. through the Helsinki University Hospital Research Institute to conduct trials on HPV vaccines.

Dr Palefsky is a professor of medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine. He completed his undergraduate medical training and training in internal medicine at McGill University and completed his fellowship in infectious diseases at Stanford University. Dr Palefsky is an internationally recognised expert on the molecular biology, treatment, pathogenesis, and natural history of anogenital HPV infections, particularly in the setting of HIV infection. He is the director of the world's first clinic devoted to prevention of anal cancer—the Anal Neoplasia Clinic at the UCSF Cancer Center. He has pioneered diagnostic and treatment methods for anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN) and has been an advocate for screening and treatment of AIN in high-risk populations to prevent anal cancer. He is the chair of the HPV Working Group of the AIDS Malignancy Consortium. He is co-chair of the Special Populations Committee for and member of the board of the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology. He is the author of more than 200 publications.

Conflicts of interest
Dr Palefsky has made the following disclosure:
Research support and advisory board member: Merck and Co

Dr Posner is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Medical Director of the Head and Neck Oncology Program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Director of the Human Monoclonal Antibody Laboratory of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is a current or past member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, American Journal of Clinical Oncology, Oral Oncology, The Oncologist, the Annals of Oncology, and Head and Neck, and he serves as an ad hoc reviewer for The New England Journal of Medicine, Cancer, Journal of Immunology, Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer Research, British Journal of Cancer, and Oncology. Dr Posner has been a member of several NIH Health review committees. He has published more than 180 peer-reviewed laboratory and clinical studies and multiple reviews and has been the principal investigator on numerous clinical and translational research trials in head and neck cancer. Dr Posner has reported on antibody based immunotherapy in pemphigus and HIV, and adoptive immunotherapy in nasopharynx cancer. He holds patents for Human Monoclonal Antibodies to viral and bacterial antigens.

Conflicts of interest
Dr Posner has made the following financial disclosures with pharmaceutical firms and oncology agencies for the past 12 months:
Honoraria: Sanofi Aventis, Merck
Clinical research support (no salary): Abraxis, Sanofi Aventis, Astra Zeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Amgen, NCI, NIAID, Imclone, Novartis, Actogenix
Consultant: Amgen, Glaxo-Smith-Kline, NCI, BMS, Sanofi Aventis, Oxigene, Imclone, Onc-Q-Ity, Biovex, Novartis, Merck, EMD Serono
Member: ASCO, AACR, ASH, AAI, NCCN, RTOG, ESMO
Stock: None
Significant income from above: None
Financial relationship: None

Dr Guglielmo Ronco, an epidemiologist, is responsible for the unit for cervical cancer screening at the Centre for Cancer Prevention in Turin, Italy, where he has worked since 1987. From 1990, his main interest has been in screening for cervical cancer. He has undertaken surveys for the evaluation of cervical screening at the national and European level and has participated in the preparation of national and international guidelines for cervical cancer screening. Dr Ronco has also studied new methods for cervical screening and related fields. In particular, he is the principal investigator of the NTCC study, a large (about 100 000 women enrolled), multicentre, randomised trial for the evaluation of new technologies as primary tests for cervical cancer screening—these include testing for HPV DNA, liquid-based cytology, and biomarkers for improving the specificity of HPV testing.

Conflicts of interest
Dr Ronco has made the following disclosure:
Participation in internal Scientific Advisory Board (March 2008): Gen-Probe (San Diego, CA, USA).

John is a clinical epidemiologist and Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at McMaster University after serving for 8 years as Senior Medical Advisor of the Reproductive Health Program at PATH in Seattle. At PATH he led a public-private partnership project with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and private industry to research and develop new cervical cancer screening tests that are affordable, rapid, and appropriate for public-health programmes in low resource regions. As a result, two new molecular tests, one for HPV DNA and another for E6 oncoprotein, are promising. Projects with the Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention and with the HPV Vaccine project at PATH have provided him with an understanding of strategies to prevent cervical cancer. He is an advisor to projects on HPV vaccination in Canada and female genital schistosomiasis in Africa and a member of the board of Grounds for Health, a non-profit organisation working to prevent cervical cancer among coffee plantation workers.

Conflicts of interest
Professor Sellors has disclosed no conflicts of interest

Peter Snijders is a professor of molecular pathology and head of the molecular pathology unit in the department of pathology at VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam. Since 1988, he has worked on HPV-related topics. He was involved in the development of the HPV GP5+/6+ consensus PCR method and was among the first to establish a plausible etiological role of mucosal HPV in tonsillar cancer. He is currently using both in-vitro models and clinically well-defined patient material to investigate HPV-induced oncogenic progression, in particular the identification and characterisation of genes involved in this process and candidate markers for risk assessment. He is also undertaking clinical trials to test viral and host markers for their capability to assess the risk of cervical cancer and identify high-grade precursor stages during screening. He is (co)author of more than 200 international, peer-reviewed articles in his area of expertise.

Conflicts of interest
Professor Snijders has made the following declaration:
Work is funded in part by the Dutch Cancer Society (NKB) and the Netherlands Organization for Health and Development (ZonMW). He provided occasional consultation to companies involved in HPV diagnostics. He has a relationship with Self-screen.

Professor Stanley is Professor of Epithelial Biology in the University of Cambridge. She attended the Universities of London, Bristol, and Adelaide, is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. She has served on several research council committees and was a member of the Biology and Biotechnology Science Research Council from 2000 to 2003. She is currently a member of the Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee that advises the UK government on prion diseases, and in 2004 was awarded the OBE for services to Virology. Her current research focuses on mechanisms of host defence and the development of vaccines and immunotherapies against human papillomaviruses, the cause of cervix cancer. She has published extensively and is at present on the editorial board of Sexually Transmitted Infections, Journal of Clinical Virology, and Reviews in Medical Virology. She is a council member of the International Papillomavirus Society.

Conflicts of interest
Professor Stanley has made the following disclosure:
Consultant/SAB member: Merck Corp, New Jersey, USA; SPMSD, Lyon, France. Consultant/Phase IV Steering Group Member: GSK Biologicals, Rixensart, Belgium

Dr Connie Liu Trimble is a translational researcher whose work focuses on immune therapies for disease caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). At Johns Hopkins, she has established a multidisciplinary programme — the Center for Cervical Dysplasia — to provide patient care and education, faculty and student mentoring, and to support translational research to improve the care of patients with HPV. In addition to the design and implementation of clinical trials to test immune-based therapies for women with preinvasive HPV disease, her lab studies the mechanisms of immune-cell recruitment, activation, and homoeostasis in the genital mucosa, and mechanisms of immune evasion by HPV. She is double-boarded in both obstetrics and gynaecology and in anatomic pathology, with specialty training in gynaecological pathology.

Conflicts of interest
Dr Trimble has disclosed no conflicts of interest.

From May, 1997, until October 1, 2009, Jan B Vermorken was a professor of oncology at the University of Antwerp, and head of the department of medical oncology at the University Hospital Antwerp, in Edegem, Belgium. Since his retirement he has remained connected to both the University (emeritus Professor) and University Hospital. His main fields of interest are gynaecological oncology and head and neck oncology, and his primary research focus is early clinical and pharmacological studies with new drugs and studies on the interaction of chemotherapy and radiation therapy and HPV in various malignancies. Professor Vermorken is a member of the European Society of Gynecology (ESGO) and was an ESGO council member from 1989 to 2000. He is also a member of several European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) groups, including the Gynecological Cancer Group and the Head and Neck Cancer Group, and is considered a prominent member of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) faculty. He is a member of the International Gynecologic Cancer Society, founding member of the Gynecologic Cancer Intergroup, was a member of the scientific board of the Dutch Cancer Society from 1988 to 1993, was chairman of the Dutch Society of Oncology from 1989 to 1997, and was appointed chairman of the Belgian Association of Cancer Research in 2003. Professor Vermorken is a member of six editorial boards of international journals and has authored or co-authored more than 450 publications in international journals. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Oncology.

Conflicts of interest
Professor Vermorken has made the following disclosure: He participated in Advisory Board meetings of Merck-Serono, Amgen, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Lilly, Sanofy-Aventis, Oncolytics Biotech Inc, and Genmab

Dr Wentzensen is an investigator for the division of cancer epidemiology and genetics at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). His area of expertise is research on the etiology of gynaecological cancers and biomarker discovery, especially for cervical and ovarian cancer. Dr Wentzensen has worked on HPV-associated cancers for more than a decade and has focused on the development of biomarkers for cervical cancer screening from basic research to translation in clinical and epidemiological studies. His clinical training and his experience in running a diagnostic service laboratory for cervical cancer screening are important assets for conducting epidemiological studies with translational impact. Currently, he is the principal investigator for a large cervical cancer biomarker research and discovery effort being undertaken at NCI. He recently initiated a new study to analyse the accuracy of cervical colposcopy and biopsy in women with abnormal screening results; this is currently extended to a world-wide network of studies on colposcopy performance and harmonisation. Apart from his work on cervical cancer, Dr Wentzensen is interested in the etiological heterogeneity of ovarian cancer. Dr Wentzensen earned his MD and a PhD in applied tumour biology from the University of Heidelberg and a Master of Epidemiology from the University of Mainz. He joined the National Cancer Institute in 2007. Dr Wentzensen serves as an expert in the Cochrane Gynaecological Cancer Review Group, section "Prevention of Cervical Cancer", and in the Practice Improvement in Cervical Screening and Management (PICSM) Group that is working on new guidelines for cervical cancer screening incorporating new molecular assays.

Conflicts of interest
Dr Wentzensen has disclosed no significant conflicts of interest.