Dr Harriet Walter

Dr Harriet Walter is an Associate Professor of Medical Oncology and Honorary Consultant Medical Oncologist. She is the co-lead of the Leicester Experimental Cancer Medicines Centre and Director of the Hope Cancer Trials Centre.

Dr Walter studied Medicine at the University of Birmingham, graduating with honours. She undertook her early postgraduate training within the West Midlands and Oxford Deanery prior to commencing speciality training in Medical Oncology in the East Midlands. During her training she undertook a PhD within The Ernest and Helen Scott Haematological Research Institute at the University of Leicester under the supervision of Professor Martin Dyer, studying Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors in B-cell malignancies. Dr Walter subsequently secured a 3-year Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Fellowship to develop her expertise in clinical trial delivery spending time at the University of Southampton within the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit. She completed her speciality training during this fellowship and was appointed to her current role in 2019.

Dr Walter is the Phase I lead in Oncology at University Hospitals of Leicester with a growing trials portfolio. Her translational laboratory interests focus on precision medicines in B cell malignancies, including bispecific antibodies.

Dr Walter’s research interests are in therapeutic drug development, the design and delivery of early phase clinical trials and the development and assessment of novel therapies in B cell malignancies.  She works as a Medical Advisor for the Centre for Drug Development at Cancer Research UK.

N Patil, N Ma, M Mair, et al. Oral Cavity Cancers: Ethnic Differences in Radiotherapy Outcomes in a Majority South Asian Leicester Community. Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 2024 May;36(5):300-306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clon.2024.02.010  Epub 2024 Feb 15. PMID: 38388251.

R Walewska R, TA Eyre, S Barrington, et al; BSH Committee. Guideline for the diagnosis and management of marginal zone lymphomas: A British Society of Haematology Guideline. Br J Haematol. 2024 Jan;204(1):86-107. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjh.19064  Epub 2023 Nov 13. PMID: 37957111.

R Jones, R Plummer, V Moreno, et al. A Phase I/II Trial of Oral SRA737 (a Chk1 Inhibitor) Given in Combination with Low-Dose Gemcitabine in Patients with Advanced Cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2023 Jan 17;29(2):331-340. https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-22-2074  PMID: 36378548; PMCID: PMC10539020.

F Morschhauser, MJS Dyer, HS Walter et al. Phase 1b study of tirabrutinib in combination with idelalisib or entospletinib in previously treated B-cell lymphoma. Leukemia. 2021 Jul;35(7):2108-2113.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-020-01108-x   Epub 2020 Dec 17. PMID: 33328591; PMCID: PMC8257485.

AV Danilov, C Herbaux, HS Walter et al. Phase Ib Study of Tirabrutinib in Combination with Idelalisib or Entospletinib in Previously Treated Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Clinical Cancer Research. 2020;26(12):2810-2818.  https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-19-3504

RG Owen, H McCarthy, S Rule, HS Walter et al. Acalabrutinib monotherapy in patients with Waldenstram macroglobulinemia: a single-arm, multicentre, phase 2 study. Lancet Haematology 2020;7(2):e112-e121. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-3026(19)30210-8.

IW Flinn, JG Gribben, MJS Dyer, HS Walter et al. Phase 1b study of venetoclax-obinutuzumab in previously untreated and relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Blood. 2019;133(26):2765-2775. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2019-01-896290

TA Eyre, HS Walter, S Iyengar et al. Efficacy of venetoclax monotherapy in patients with relapsed, refractory mantle cell lymphoma after Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy. Haematologica. 2019;104(2):e68-e71.  https://doi.org/10.3324%2Fhaematol.2018.198812 

M Vogler, HS Walter, MJS Dyer. Targeting anti-apoptotic BCL2 family proteins in haematological malignancies - from pathogenesis to treatment. British Journal of Haematology 2017;178(3):364-379. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjh.14684

HS Walter, S Jayne, SA Rule et al. Long-term follow-up of patients with CLL treated with the selective Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor ONO/GS-4059. Blood. 2017;129(20):2808-2810. https://doi.org/10.1182%2Fblood-2017-02-765115 

HS Walter, GA Salles, MJS Dyer. New agents to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia. New England Journal of Medicine 2016;374(22):2185-2186.  https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmc1602674

Dr Walter supervises a number of PhD students funded by the MRC DTP scheme (iCASE studentship with Isogenica), LPH and Hope Against Cancer/ LCRC. She also supervises clinical PhD studentships, academic clinical trainees and iMSc, MSc and BSc students.

Dr Walter teaches on the following courses:

• MSc Cancer Molecular Pathology and Therapeutics 
• Cancer Cell and Molecular Biology MSc
• BSc Clinical Sciences

Novel therapies in the treatment of B cell malignancies.

• Medical Advisor for Cancer Research UK Centre for Drug Development.
• Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Fellowship Grant Committee.
• Cancer Research UK CTU QQR Expert Review Panel and other invited reviews.

• 2018: College of Life Sciences PhD Prize.
• 2017: Royal College of Physicians and National Institute for Health Research Trainee Award for contribution to research.
• 2017-2018: European Hematology Association Clinical Research Training Award in Hematology (EHA CRTH).

• Therapeutic drug development.
• Design and delivery of early phase clinical trials.
• Development and assessment of novel therapies in B cell malignancies.

• 2003: BMedSci (Hons): Cellular pathology and Neuropharmacology (2.1). The University of Birmingham Medical School.
• 2006: MBChB with honours. The University of Birmingham Medical School.
• 2009: MRCP (United Kingdom).
• 2012: MSc Oncology (Distinction). Nottingham University.
• 2013: MRCP Specialty Certificate Examination in Medical Oncology.
• 2018: PhD. Studies of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors in B-cell malignancies. Leicester Cancer Research Centre, University of Leicester.
• 2020: Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Authority (AFHEA).