Dr Mary McCormack (UCL Cancer Institute) has been included in TIME magazine’s list of the one hundred most influential figures in healthcare 2025, in recognition of her work to improve outcomes for cervical cancer patients.
TIME publishes lists of the one hundred most influential figures in various fields each year. The TIME100 Health list includes individuals who have made an impact in advancing care, shaping policy, driving innovation, and transforming lives.
For over two decades, Dr McCormack’s research has focused on optimising chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments for patients with advanced cervical cancer.
Guided by early evidence in the 1990s that shortening or eliminating the gaps between treatments could improve outcomes, and frustrated by a lack of follow up research, Dr McCormack conducted a small-scale trial in 2008 that showed improved survival rates compared to standard treatment.
But it wasn’t until 2024, after over a decade of fighting for resources and support, that the ’gold standard’ evidence required to change clinical practice was finally published.
The INTERLACE phase III trial, funded by Cancer Research UK and the UCL Cancer Trials Centre, assessed whether a short course of induction chemotherapy prior to chemoradiation could reduce the rate of relapse and death among patients with advanced cervical cancer that hadn’t spread to other parts of the body.
The trial concluded that the new treatment regimen led to a 40% reduction in the risk of death and a 35% reduction in the risk of cancer returning over a follow-up period of at least five years. Five patients involved in the trial have been disease-free for over 10 years.
The protocol has been adopted by institutions around the world since the study was published, and is included in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines on the management of locally advanced cervical cancer.
Dr McCormack, who is also a Consultant Oncologist at UCLH, said: "It’s been a long journey towards improving outcomes for patients with advanced cervical cancer, and at times a difficult one. But even when I wasn’t sure if the research would ever be completed, I was determined to see it through to the end for the patients.
"It’s an honour to be included in the TIME100 Health list 2025, but in truth clinical trials are a team effort. The study wouldn’t have been possible without the contributions of all’of my co-authors."
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