Dr Constantinos Savva
MD, MSc, PGDip, PhD, MRCP
Education and training
Dr Savva is an associate professor and honorary consultant of medical oncology with a strong academic and clinical background in cancer research and treatment.
He graduated with upper second-class honours from the School of Medicine at the University of Ioannina, Greece, in 2010. In 2011, he completed an MSc in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. From 2011 to 2015, he undertook foundation and core medical training in the Mersey and East of England deaneries, respectively, and became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians in 2015.
Following this, Dr Savva was awarded an NIHR academic clinical fellowship and a national training number in medical oncology at the University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. During this time, he also completed a postgraduate diploma in oncology at Newcastle University.
In 2018, he received a CRUK clinical research fellowship in cancer immunology and biology at the University of Southampton, where he completed a PhD in breast cancer immunology in 2022. Concurrently, he earned a postgraduate certificate in clinical bioinformatics from the University of Manchester.
In 2022, he was appointed NIHR clinical lecturer in medical oncology. In 2024, he was awarded both an NIHR/BRC bridging postdoctoral fellowship and a Francis Crick clinical postdoctoral fellowship to investigate the impact of lifestyle interventions on anticancer immune responses.
Dr Savva’s research focuses on immunometabolism, obesity, and the metabolic reprogramming of immune cells to enhance clinical outcomes in patients with breast cancer.
Experience
His expertise lies in breast cancer, encompassing the assessment of newly diagnosed early-stage and metastatic patients, the administration of neoadjuvant, adjuvant, and palliative chemotherapy, and the management of both treatment-related and disease-related complications, with a particular emphasis on immunotherapy toxicities. He also serves as a principal investigator in breast cancer clinical studies and plays an active role in the design, setup, and implementation of clinical trials involving novel anticancer therapies.
Awards and prizes
- CRUK clinical research training fellowship, 2018
- BRC/NIHR postdoctoral bridging fellowship, 2023
- Francis Crick clinical postdoctoral fellowship, 2024
Research
Dr Savva's research focuses on the comprehensive evaluation of the immunometabolic phenotype of both the host and the tumour microenvironment in breast cancer. This includes investigating the underlying biology and immunomodulatory effects of combining anti-PD1 therapy with metabolic interventions, using state-of -art techniques in clinical and pre-clinical models.