Speaker Profile
PMWC LUMINARY AWARD
OBE, FRS, FMedSci, Professor of Cancer Prevention; Director, Early Cancer Institute, and Head, Academic Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge
Biography
Rebecca Fitzgerald is a leading figure in cancer prevention and early detection. She is best known for developing Capsule Sponge or Cytosponge, the “sponge on a string” test for identifying Barrett’s esophagus and early esophageal cancer, providing a practical, less-invasive model for risk-based screening and reducing reliance on endoscopy.
Her work has carried this technology across the full translational arc, from mechanistic and biomarker research through large randomized trials, NHS pilots, and large-scale population screening studies, setting a benchmark for how an early detection tool moves from concept to clinical implementation. As Director of the Early Cancer Institute at Cambridge, she has built a program focused on intercepting cancer at its earliest and most treatable stages.
A Fellow of the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences, and American Association of Cancer Research, Fitzgerald continues to shape the future of cancer prevention, precision screening, and early cancer interception.
Talk
Session Abstract – PMWC 2027 Silicon Valley
Track Chair:
Victor Velculescu, Johns Hopkins
PMWC Award Ceremony
• Rebecca Fitzgerald, University of Cambridge (Luminary)
• Mary-Claire King, University of Washington (Pioneer)
• Nickolas Papadopoulos, Johns Hopkins (Pioneer)
Featured Speakers
• Mary-Claire King, University of Washington
• Rebecca Fitzgerald, University of Cambridge
• Nickolas Papadopoulos, Johns Hopkins
• Victor Velculescu, Johns Hopkins
• Phil Castle, NIH
• Elad Ziv, UCSF
• Ash Alizadeh, Stanford
• Hamed Amini, Hepta
• Becky Taub, Madrigal Pharmaceuticals
• Trevor Pugh, University of Toronto
• Doga Gulhan, Harvard
• Pranav Rajpurkar, Harvard
• Chris Douville, Johns Hopkins
• Sylvia Katina Plevritis, UCSF
In Precision Medicine, Almost All Diseases Are Genetically Rare
A genetics-first keynote framing risk, prevention, and actionability.
The Reckoning
What the first wave of early detection got right and wrong.
The End of One Size Fits All
Risk-stratified screening, high-risk populations, and single-cancer tests.
Treating Disease at the Earliest Stage
Where detection and therapeutic interception begin to converge.
Pre-Cancer Detection & the Liver Disease Frontier
cfDNA and clinical action across the liver-disease-to-cancer continuum.
AI Across Multimodal Signals
Fragmentomics, methylation, imaging, pathology, and integration: hype versus real science.
PMWC Hall of Impact
Previous Speakers Include
Nobel laureates, technology founders, regulators, CEOs and scientific pioneers who have taken the PMWC stage.
