Dr Alex Stewart went to medical school at Southampton University. She developed an initial interest in oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital working on primary prevention of breast cancer studies in the Professorial unit. She then commenced specialist registrar training at Charing Cross and the Hammersmith Hospitals where amongst other interests she gained initial experience in brachytherapy. She was then chosen for a prestigious Fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University in Boston where she completed a year of brachytherapy training and a year of prostate cancer Fellowship on a National Institute of Health grant. Whilst there she won an ASCO merit award for a prostate cancer study that was subsequently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

She returned from the USA to complete her specialist registrar training at the Royal Marsden Hospital where she continued to publish on specialist radiotherapy techniques such as IMRT in lower limb sarcomas. On completing her specialist training she chose to work in Guildford due to the exemplary brachytherapy department they had. They were very strong in prostate brachytherapy and Alex has now developed their cervix brachytherapy and added oesophageal and rectal brachytherapy including Papillon treatment to the portfolio, one of few international centres to perform this. Alex has a strong interest in the clinical applications of brachytherapy and has written a number of textbook chapters on this subject, in addition to many published papers.

Since starting at the Royal Surrey in 2008, Alex has taken a keen interest in management, taking on the role of radiotherapy lead in 2010 and becoming clinical director for the oncology, medical physics and nuclear medicine directorate in 2012. She is now Clinical Lead for Oncology.

Alex has kept her research links strong, holding an honorary contract at the University of Surrey as a Visiting Professor. She is also developing improved imaging techniques in cervix brachytherapy and collaborating with the University physics and engineering departments in innovative projects. With the aid of BRIGHT funding she has worked with computer scientist Dr Mark Halling-Brown to develop a database for colorectal cancer patients which is now used internationally and is recommended for use in Papillon patients by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. BRIGHT have funded 2 database managers who keep the database up to date and enable important research in this patient group. She is developing a clinical trial to assess patient reported outcomes using the database to try to improve quality of life after treatment for cancer survivors.