Åslaug Helland

Åslaug Helland, MD, PhD, is a Research Director at the OECI-accredited Oslo Comprehensive Cancer Centre. She is an oncologist by training, with expertise in thoracic oncology, and is director of the research centre for clinical research – MATRIX (https://www.matrix-fkb.no/en/home).

She leads the research group “Translational research on solid tumours” at the Institute for Cancer Research, Norwegian Radium Hospital (NRH), Oslo.  She is also Professor at the University of Oslo Institute of Clinical Medicine, and leads the national centre for lung cancer research funded by the Norwegian Cancer Society. Åslaug obtained her MD degree in 1995, and later her PhD in Medicine in 2000, from the University of Oslo. She pursued her postdoctoral studies during 2003/2004 at Stanford University, and in 2008/2009 as a visiting scientist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne Australia, adding to her international experience.

Åslaugs research group focuses on translational studies on solid tumours, with a special interest in lung cancers and pancreatic cancers. She furthermore leads several clinical and translational studies in lung cancer and has been part of several EGFR-focused clinical studies. Currently, she leads the investigator-initiated DART-trial, a translational study for patients with stage III NSCLC supported by ASTRA-Zeneca, the NIPU trial – a study evaluating ipi-nivo and ipi-nivo + UV1 vaccine in patients with malignant mesothelioma supported by BMS and Ultimovacs, and the IMPRESS-Norway study. The IMPRESS-Norway study with the goal of “Improving public cancer care by implementing precision medicine in Norway,” is a national clinical study for patients with advanced cancer after standard therapy. IMPRESS involves active support from several leading global pharmaceutical companies (Roche, Novartis, Incyte, Eli Lilly as of Feb 2022) providing study drugs and contributing with per patient fees. The study is also supported by public research funding in addition to funding for the diagnostics.