Biography
Richard Simcock joined the Sussex Cancer Centre in 2004 after postgraduate training in London, the South-East and Australia.
Having initially treated people with lung, breast and head and neck cancers he now has a pure focus on breast cancer and treats patients with radiotherapy, hormone therapies, biological therapies and immunotherapies. Richard holds clinics at the Sussex Cancer Centre but also at the Park Centre for Breast Care, where the whole multidisciplinary team meet weekly to discuss optimal patient treatment plans. He works in the Trust two days per week.
Dr Simcock’s research interests have been in patient communication, novel radiotherapy and drug treatments and best practice in the treatment of older patients with breast cancer. He is particularly interested in cancer ‘survivorship’ or living well with and beyond cancer (LWBC). For several years he was part of the National Cancer Research Institute for Cancer Research LWBC group and led their conference presentations between 2018-2021. He has led research into acupuncture as a relief for side effects of radiotherapy as well as improving readability of letters sent to patients. He has been an author of over 100 published papers in cancer treatment and research as well as several book chapters. Research work can be seen here: Richard SIMCOCK | Consultant | Sussex Cancer Centre
He is the co-editor of the ‘ABC of Cancer Care’ textbook.
For the last 10 years Dr Simcock has worked with Macmillan Cancer Support and from 2017 was one of their National Clinical Advisors working on a variety of projects including prehabilitation, older people, primary care liaison, a COVID information website in March 2020, care navigation, and improved access to psychological therapies. In 2022 he was appointed Chief Medical Officer to Macmillan and now works 3 days per week for the charity. In addition, he provides support and advice as medical advisor to ‘Mummy’s Star’, a charity providing support and advice to women diagnosed with cancer during pregnancy.
Dr Simcock is a member of several professional societies including the Royal College of Radiologists, European Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology, The American Society of Clinical Oncology and SIOG (the International Society of Geriatric Oncology).
Richard welcomes patients to record their consultations in the clinic as an aid for memory and would encourage you to bring a mobile phone that has a voice recorder app on it to appointments. Some patients will also be asked to record their symptoms using monitoring software (patient reported outcome measures) on a regular basis. All letters from clinics will be addressed to patients personally unless they specifically request this not to take place.
Dr Simcock tweets regularly on issues related to cancer as @BreastDocUK.