Research

Professor Schmid’s research is focused on improving the care of women with breast cancer through clinical trials. He is investigating a variety of novel agents that target specific pathways within cancer cells and the surrounding tissue. Professor Schmid runs an international clinical and translational research programme spanning the spectrum of the disease and ranging from phase I to randomised phase III. The majority of the studies incorporate translational research endpoints to improve our understanding of molecular factors that may elucidate mechanisms of action and predictors of treatment effect; this includes a programme on the impact of the microbiome on patient outcomes.

His current research interests include cancer immune therapy combinations across all stages and subtypes of breast cancer, novel targeted agents and antibody-drug conjugates - alone or in combination - to overcome resistance, and innovative biomarker-driven trial concepts (including a preoperative window of opportunity platform to evaluate novel immunotherapy combinations in breast cancer).

Professor Schmid is the lead investigator of several international, pivotal breast cancer studies on novel targeted therapeutics to improve the treatment of both early and late stage breast cancer. He was the lead investigator of the Impassion130 trial that evaluated atezolizumab for advanced triple-negative breast cancer and lead to the approval of the first immunotherapy strategy for patients with breast cancer, establishing a new standard of care for this disease. He was also the lead investigator of the KEYNOTE-522 trial which established the addition of the immune-checkpoint inhibitor Pembrolizumab to preoperative chemotherapy as a new standard for patients with stage II or III triple-negative breast cancer based on a 37% reduction in recurrences of this aggressive subtype of breast cancer.

Professor Schmid’s work has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Lancet Oncology, JAMA Oncology, Nature Communications and the Journal of Clinical Oncology. He has grant income from national and international funding bodies.

Prof Schmid is a member of several national and international cancer organisations and research groups. He has been involved in international consensus meetings and is co-author of international guidelines on the management of breast cancer. Professor Peter Schmid is Chair of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) breast cancer faculty and he is part of the faculty for the major global oncology meetings.

Other Activities

• Clinical director, Barts Breast Cancer Centre, St Bartholomew's Hospital
• Chair, European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) breast cancer faculty
• Scientific committee/faculty for the major global oncology meetings
• ECMC strategy group and ECMC Intelligence Steering Committee
• Clinical Expert for the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), nominated by the Royal College of Physicians
• International guidelines for breast cancer

Major Funding

• BARBICAN: A randomised, open-label Phase II study to determine the contribution of ipatasertib to neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus atezolizumab in women with TNBC (CI). Roche, 2018-2022
• ECLIPSE: A phase II trial investigating preoperative combination strategies for immunotherapy in patients with operable, ER-positive, HER2-negative primary breast cancer (CI). Roche, 2017-2022
• Barts Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (PI). Cancer Research UK and NIHR. 2017-2022, £2M
• Comprehensive Analysis of Circulating Biomarkers in breast cancer patients (CI). Barts Charity, 2015-2022, £499,652
• ARB-ER - Randomized Phase II window study of short-term preoperative treatment with enzalutamide plus exemestane versus exemestane in ER-positive breast cancer (CI). Astellas, 2014-2017
• ARB-TNBC - Phase II window study of short-term preoperative treatment with enzalutamide in patients with triple negative breast cancer (CI). Astellas, 2014-2017
• MANTA - Randomized Phase II study of Fulvestrant in combination with AZD2014 or Everolimus or Fulvestrant alone in ER-positive metastatic breast cancer (CI). Astra Zeneca, 2013-2018
• CRUKE/12/051: PAKT - Phase II, randomized, placebo-controlled study of paclitaxel +/- the AKT inhibitor AZD5363 in triple-negative breast cancer (CI). CRUK/Astra Zeneca, 2013-2018

Recent Publications

Gene signatures in patients with early breast cancer and relapse despite pathologic complete response Bruzas S, Gluz O, Harbeck N et al. npj Breast Cancer (2022) 8(7)

Immunotherapy for early triple negative breast cancer: research agenda for the next decade Tarantino P, Corti C, Schmid P et al. npj Breast Cancer (2022) 8(7)

Brief Report: Safety and Antitumor Activity of Alectinib Plus Atezolizumab From a Phase 1b Study in Advanced ALK-Positive NSCLC Kim DW, Gadgeel S, Gettinger SN et al. JTO Clinical and Research Reports (2022) 3(7)

Pembrolizumab plus Chemotherapy in Advanced Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cortes J, Rugo HS, Cescon DW et al. New England Journal of Medicine (2022) 387(7) 217-226

Trastuzumab Deruxtecan in Previously Treated HER2-Low Advanced Breast Cancer Modi S, Jacot W, Yamashita T et al. New England Journal of Medicine (2022) 387(7) 9-20

A local human Vδ1 T cell population is associated with survival in nonsmall-cell lung cancer Wu Y, Biswas D, Usaite I et al. Nature Cancer (2022) 3(7) 696-709

Pembrolizumab in Early Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. Reply Schmid P, Cortes J, Dent R The New England journal of medicine (2022) 386(7) 1771-1772

Emerging strategies for TNBC with early clinical data: new chemoimmunotherapy strategies Hall PE, Schmid P Breast Cancer Research and Treatment (2022) 193(7) 21-35

Event-free Survival with Pembrolizumab in Early Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Schmid P, Cortes J, Dent R et al. New England Journal of Medicine (2022) 386(7) 556-567

A phase Ib/II study of xentuzumab, an IGF-neutralising antibody, combined with exemestane and everolimus in hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative locally advanced/metastatic breast cancer Schmid P, Sablin MP, Bergh J et al. Breast Cancer Research (2021) 23(7)

Biography

Professor Schmid is the clinical director of the Breast Cancer Centre and an honorary consultant medical oncologist at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He was appointed in 2013 as Chair in Cancer Medicine at Barts Cancer Institute (BCI), Queen Mary University London. Professor Schmid is the Lead of the Centre of Experimental Cancer Medicine at BCI, overseeing the conduct of early phase trials at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and BCI. He leads the academic breast cancer programme at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and BCI.

Professor Schmid trained in medicine in Munich and Aberdeen. He was awarded scholarships by the 'Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes' (German Academic Scholarship Foundation), the 'Hanns-Seidel-Foundation', and the 'Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst' (German Academic Exchange Service). He graduated from the Technical University of Munich medical school in 1997, gaining a MD in Clinical Chemistry in 1998 from the University of Munich and a Clinical Research PhD in 2005 from Charité University in Berlin.

Prof Schmid trained at the University Hospital Charité in Berlin in internal medicine, haematology, and oncology, before he became a Senior Clinical Lecturer and Director of the Hammersmith Early Clinical Trials Unit at Imperial College London in 2005. Professor Schmid was appointed as Foundation Chair in Cancer Medicine at the University of Sussex in 2010, before taking on his current role at BCI in 2013.