{"entity":{"id":"matt-seymour","kind":"person","name":"Matt Seymour","aka":[],"tldr":"The Leeds oncologist behind the FOCUS trials, which asked how best to sequence chemotherapy for advanced bowel cancer, and a leader of FOxTROT, which moved chemotherapy before surgery in colon cancer.","summary":"Matt Seymour has been Professor of Gastrointestinal Cancer Medicine at the University of Leeds since 2004 and has served as clinical research director of the National Cancer Research Institute. He was first author of MRC FOCUS, the trial that compared sequential and combination chemotherapy strategies in advanced colorectal cancer, and is second author of the mature FOxTROT results, which showed that six weeks of preoperative oxaliplatin and fluoropyrimidine chemotherapy for operable colon cancer downstaged tumours, made resections more often histopathologically complete (94 percent against 89 percent) and cut residual or recurrent disease at two years.","asOf":"2026-09-24","links":[{"label":"University of Leeds staff page","url":"https://medicinehealth.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/staff/3085/professor-matt-seymour"}],"tags":["colorectal","trialist","uk"],"related":["david-sebag-montefiore","tim-maughan"],"cancers":["colorectal"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["folfox","capox"],"companies":[],"institutions":["leeds-cancer-centre"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":["foxtrot","focus4"],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Professor of Gastrointestinal Cancer Research, University of Leeds","institutionId":"leeds-cancer-centre","specialisms":["Advanced colorectal cancer chemotherapy","Trial strategy and design","Neoadjuvant treatment of colon cancer"],"profiles":[{"label":"University of Leeds staff page","url":"https://medicinehealth.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/staff/3085/professor-matt-seymour"}],"papers":[{"title":"Different strategies of sequential and combination chemotherapy for patients with poor prognosis advanced colorectal cancer (MRC FOCUS): a randomised controlled trial","journal":"Lancet","year":2007,"doi":"10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61087-3"},{"title":"Preoperative chemotherapy for operable colon cancer: mature results of an international randomized controlled trial (FOxTROT)","journal":"Journal of Clinical Oncology","year":2023,"doi":"10.1200/JCO.22.00046"}]},"route":"/people/matt-seymour/","neighbours":{"person":[{"id":"david-sebag-montefiore","kind":"person","name":"David Sebag-Montefiore","route":"/people/david-sebag-montefiore/"},{"id":"dion-morton","kind":"person","name":"Dion Morton","route":"/people/dion-morton/"},{"id":"tim-maughan","kind":"person","name":"Tim Maughan","route":"/people/tim-maughan/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"colorectal","kind":"cancer","name":"Colorectal cancer","route":"/cancers/colorectal/"}],"drug":[{"id":"capox","kind":"drug","name":"CAPOX (capecitabine, oxaliplatin)","route":"/drugs/capox/"},{"id":"folfox","kind":"drug","name":"FOLFOX (5-FU, leucovorin, oxaliplatin)","route":"/drugs/folfox/"}],"institution":[{"id":"leeds-cancer-centre","kind":"institution","name":"Leeds Cancer Centre, St James's University Hospital","route":"/institutions/leeds-cancer-centre/"}],"trial":[{"id":"focus4","kind":"trial","name":"FOCUS4","route":"/trials/focus4/"},{"id":"foxtrot","kind":"trial","name":"FOxTROT","route":"/trials/foxtrot/"}]}}