# Andrew Roberts

Source: https://onco.cc/people/andrew-roberts/  
OnCo record `andrew-roberts` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A Melbourne haematologist who led the first human study of venetoclax, the leukaemia drug that grew from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute's discovery that BCL-2 keeps cancer cells alive.

## Summary

Andrew Roberts was first author of the 2016 New England Journal of Medicine report of the first-in-human study of venetoclax in relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, written from the Royal Melbourne Hospital's Department of Clinical Haematology and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute with John Seymour of Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and colleagues at AbbVie and Genentech; 79 percent of 116 patients responded, and the weekly dose ramp-up introduced in that study removed clinical tumour lysis syndrome in the expansion cohort. The Institute's own account traces the drug to its finding in the late 1980s that BCL-2 helps leukaemia cells live, and names Roberts, then its Cancer Theme Leader, at the 2019 announcement that venetoclax would be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Papers in 2026 continue to give the Institute as affiliation.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-11-03
- Also known as: Andrew W. Roberts; Roberts AW
- Role: Haematologist and researcher, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
- Specialisms: Clinical haematology; Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia; BCL-2 and apoptosis

## Sources

- Roberts et al., venetoclax in relapsed CLL (NEJM 2016): https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1513257
- WEHI: venetoclax listed on the PBS: https://www.wehi.edu.au/news/anti-cancer-treatment-venetoclax-listed-australian-pbs/

## Connected records

- institutions: [Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre](https://onco.cc/institutions/peter-mac/), [Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research](https://onco.cc/institutions/wehi/)
- cancers: [Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia](https://onco.cc/cancers/cll/)
- fronts: [Targeted Therapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/targeted-therapy/)
- drugs: [Venetoclax](https://onco.cc/drugs/venetoclax/)
- people: [John F. Seymour](https://onco.cc/people/john-seymour/)
- key papers: [Targeting BCL2 with venetoclax in relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-roberts-venetoclax-relapsed-cll-nejm-2016/)

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