- Our Doctors
- Dr Kevin Franks
Dr Kevin Franks
MBChB, MRCP, FRCR, Consultant Clinical Oncologist
Languages spoken
English
Expert in
Thoracic malignancies (lung cancer and mesothelioma)
Overview
Centres
Specialises in
Treatments
Following a two-year research fellowship at the Princess Margaret Hospital/University of Toronto (2005-2007) in technical lung cancer radiotherapy and SABR, Dr. Kevin Franks returned to Leeds and led the multi-disciplinary team that implemented lung Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy (SABR) in 2009. Leeds was the first center in the UK to treat patients with SABR, and since then, Dr. Franks has been involved in training and education (including mentorship) to help implement SABR and IMRT nationally.
Dr. Franks has an active research portfolio in lung cancer, with interests including technical radiotherapy, SABR, re-irradiation, radiotherapy cardiac toxicity, quality of life, patient optimization, early phase clinical trials, and novel agent/radiotherapy combinations.
He was a founding member of the UK SABR Consortium and the ex-chair of the UK SABR Research Sub-Group. Additionally, he co-chaired the production of national guidelines in image-guided radiotherapy, including the National Cancer Action Team (NCAT) Image-Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT) guidelines (2012) and On Target 2: updated guidance for image-guided radiotherapy, Radiotherapy Board (Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine/College of Radiographers/Royal College of Radiologists, 2021).
Dr. Franks has also contributed to multiple national and international guidance publications, serving as the clinical oncology representative on the British Thoracic Society Working Group for the management of solitary pulmonary nodules (Thorax 2015). He has been involved in the RCR's "The Timely Delivery of Radical Radiotherapy: Guidelines for the Management of Unscheduled Treatment Interruptions" (2019), "Radiotherapy for Lung Cancer – Consensus Statements" (2020), and "Principles of Re-irradiation" (due for publication in 2024).
.svg){kind=icon}
Career Positions
Current position(s)
- Consultant Clinical Oncologist Leeds Cancer Centre
- Deputy Director for the Leeds NIHR Clinical Research Facility
- Clinical Lead for Oncology Research and Innovation at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
- Associate Professor at the University of Leeds
Expertise and interests
Dr. Kevin Franks' clinical practice is predominantly focused on thoracic malignancies, including lung cancer and mesothelioma, where he administers both systemic therapy and radiotherapy. He also treats patients with SABR (Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy) for lung primaries and metastases from any cancer site, with a particular interest in re-irradiation.
- Thoracic cancer
Professional associations
- Fellow Royal College of Radiologists (UK)
- Member of ESTRO
- Elected Member of the RCR Clinical Oncology Professional Support & Standards Board (to commence Sept 2024)
- Elected Member of the RCR Clinical Oncology Faculty Board (to commence Sept 2024)
Publications & affiliations
1: Burnett C, Bestall J, Boland A, Burke S, Callister M, Greenwood-Wilson S, Hewison J, Morgan E, Murray RL, Pompili C, Sloss A, Williams G, Franks K. The Prehabilitation Radiotherapy Exercise, smoking Habit cessation and Balanced diet Study (PREHABS) protocol to explore the feasibility of embedding behavioural modifications into the clinical pathway for patients undergoing radical radiotherapy for lung cancer. BMJ Open. 2024 Jan 25;14(1)
2: Banfill K, Abravan A, van Herk M, Sun F, Franks K, McWilliam A, Faivre-Finn C. Heart dose and cardiac comorbidities influence death with a cardiac cause following hypofractionated radiotherapy for lung cancer. Front Oncol. 2022 Oct 11;12:
3: Diez P, Hanna GG, Aitken KL, van As N, Carver A, Colaco RJ, Conibear J, Dunne EM, Eaton DJ, Franks KN, Good JS, Harrow S, Hatfield P, Hawkins MA, Jain S, McDonald F, Patel R, Rackley T, Sanghera P, Tree A, Murray L. UK 2022 Consensus on Normal Tissue Dose-Volume Constraints for Oligometastatic, Primary Lung and Hepatocellular Carcinoma Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy. Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 2022 May;34(5):288-300
4: Rulach R, Ball D, Chua KLM, Dahele M, De Ruysscher D, Franks K, Gomez D, Guckenberger M, Hanna GG, Louie AV, Moghanaki D, Palma DA, Peedell C, Salem A, Siva S, Videtic GMM, Chalmers AJ, Harrow S. An International Expert Survey on the Indications and Practice of Radical Thoracic Reirradiation for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. Adv Radiat Oncol. 2021 Jan 20;6(2):100653.
5: Franks KN, McParland L, Webster J, Baldwin DR, Sebag-Montefiore D, Evison M, Booton R, Faivre-Finn C, Naidu B, Ferguson J, Peedell C, Callister MEJ, Kennedy M, Hewison J, Bestall J, Gregory WM, Hall P, Collinson F, Olivier C, Naylor R, Bell S, Allen P, Sloss A, Snee M. SABRTooth: a randomised controlled feasibility study of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) with surgery in patients with peripheral stage I nonsmall cell lung cancer considered to be at higher risk of complications from surgical resection. Eur Respir J. 2020 Nov 12;56(5)