Dr. Sophia Frentzas

Sophia is a Medical Oncologist at Monash Health and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Monash University. She leads the Early Phase Clinical Trials Unit at the Clinical Trials Centre (CTC) of the Monash Health Translational Precinct (MHTP), and also focuses on treating Gynaecological and Gastrointestinal malignancies. She has undertaken specialty training, research fellowships in the Drug Development Unit, and translational research at the Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London. She has completed a laboratory PhD (ICR, London), focusing on delineating mechanisms of resistance to anti-angiogenic therapy in colorectal cancers.

Her main research interests are focused on novel and personal approaches for the treatment of solid tumours, particularly in targeting aberrant pathways for angiogenesis, immuno-oncology, and on the investigation of strategies to overcome resistance to conventionally employed therapeutic agents. In particular, she has an interest in clinical, tissue, and imaging biomarker correlates of systemic therapy, sensitivity and resistance, as evidenced by her published translational work in advanced colorectal cancer.

Her research has been published in a number of peer-reviewed, high impact factor journals, and abstracts, and she has also published in book chapters. Since commencing at Monash Health in February 2018, She has brought >35 new national & international clinical trials to CTC and is the Monash Health PI on more than 20 Phase I-III studies.  She also sits on the Steering Group of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) Program to accelerate novel therapies, the Steering Group of the Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Consortium (MPCCC) for Precision Oncology, the ANZGOG Ovarian Tumour Type Working Group, and EDEN Endometrial Cancer Working Group. She is an active member of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and Medical Oncology Group of Australia (MOGA), Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Trials Group (AGITG), and Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group (ANZGOG).