2014: Lise Estcourt

I studied medicine at Cambridge, graduating in 1998, before moving to London to complete my medical training in haematology and transfusion medicine. I moved to Oxford in 2010 as a Clinical Research Fellow funded by NHS Blood and Transplant. I undertook a DPhil studying the risk factors for bleeding in patients with haematological malignancies under the supervision of Professor Mike Murphy and Dr Simon Stanworth.

During my four years as a research fellow I have been a co-investigator on the TOPPS trial, a multinational randomised controlled trial that compared a therapeutic-only versus prophylactic platelet transfusion policy in patients with haematological malignancies. This trial was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2013, with secondary publications in Haematologica and Transfusion.

I am the chief investigator of the InCiTe study, a UK-wide nested case-control study that is investigating risk factors for intracranial haemorrhage in patients with haematological malignancies. I designed and set up the study, recruited all participating sites, and led all aspects of the study’s conduct. This study is being undertaken at eighty-three hospitals throughout the UK and over 140 cases have already been reported. The study is due to close to recruitment in June 2015.

I have performed several systematic reviews on the use of platelet components in haematology patients, as well as being a clinical lead for the national comparative audit of platelet transfusions in haematology patients. I was awarded an NIHR Cochrane Programme Grant to perform systematic reviews on the safe and appropriate use of blood components in July 2014, to be performed over the next three years.

I am the co-chief investigator of the TREATT trial. This is a multinational randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial that is assessing the effectiveness and safety of tranexamic acid to prevent bleeding in patients with haematological malignancies. This study has been funded by NHS Blood and Transplant and the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), and is due to start recruiting patients in April 2015.

During my time as a research fellow I have been fortunate enough to obtain formal training in clinical trials. I was awarded an MSc with distinction in Clinical Trials by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2014.