Sophie Merrick, Cancer Research UK Clinical Research Fellow at UCL Innovative Clinical Trials Unit, Medical Oncology Registrar at UCL Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“And that’s a wrap.
4 and a half years after starting my Cancer Research UK Fellowship, I am delighted to say I have passed my PhD viva!
My thesis, “Improving Health-Related Quality of Life Through Optimised Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 Immune Checkpoint Inhibition in Renal Cell Carcinoma and Melanoma“, brings together work from the REFINE and RAMPART trials.
First and foremost, thank you to the patients who took part in the studies that contributed to this thesis. Improving patients’ quality of life was the focus of this work, and it could only be done because so many people generously shared their time, experiences and perspectives.
I have been incredibly fortunate to learn from and work alongside outstanding colleagues in the UCL Innovative Clinical Trials Unit, across the REFINE and RAMPART teams, and at the National Cancer Institute. Thank you to the many mentors, collaborators, colleagues and patient representatives whose expertise, support and encouragement made this work possible.
Thank you also to my examiners, Professor Bishal Gyawali and Professor Leila Rooshenas, for a thoughtful and enjoyable viva. It was a privilege to discuss the work with them.
I am grateful to the organisations that supported both me and the research throughout this PhD, including Cancer Research UK, the Jon Moulton Charity Trust, the Medical Research Council, Action Kidney Cancer, Melanoma Focus and Kidney Cancer UK.
Thank you to my family, including my husband David Valente, for encouraging me whenever I doubted myself and for holding everything together so that I could finish. And to my boys, Charlie and Teddy, thank you for distracting me in the best possible ways.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some of the key findings and publications from the work.
For now though, I’m mostly looking forward to not opening the thesis document again!”
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