Dr. Salem is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Sciences, Hashemite University (primary affiliation; Zarqa, Jordan), honarary Senior Clinical Lecturer (equivenent rank in US is associate professor) in Cancer Research at the University of Manchester (UK) and Consultant in Radiation Oncology in Khalidi Medical Plaza/ Afia Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Oncology Centre (Amman, Jordan).

Clinically specializing in radiation oncology, Dr. Salem’s research focuses on lung cancer, proton radiotherapy, MR Linac, novel trials, biomarkers and hypoxia.

Dr. Salem has completed training in radiation oncology at King Hussein Cancer Centre (Amman, Jordan) in 2014, attaining fellowships and specialty certifications in clinical (FRCR), radiation (ESTRO fellowship & Jordanian board) and medical oncology (MRCP medical oncology & ESMO certification). Dr. Salem also completed a CRUK/EPSRC funded clinical research fellowship in 2017, attaining a PhD from the University of Manchester for research focusing on non-invasive therapeutic lung cancer biomarkers. 

Dr. Salem attained specialist registration in the UK in 2017 and worked as a clinical oncology consultant in the Christie hospital till January 2022. 

Dr. Salem has successfully delivered several world-class clinical/ translational studies in lung cancer patients, publishing more than 62 peer-reviewed papers and many abstracts, posters and proceedings in eminent oncology conferences. Dr. Salem is a recipient of more than 10 prestigious academic oncology awards such as the ESTRO Accuray Award and the ASTRO International-US annual meeting scientific abstract award.

Apart from research, Dr. Salem is a keen educationalist. He is the current director of ESTRO FALCON lung cancer contouring workshops and supervisors a number of MSc and PhD students.   

Dr. Salem’s career goal is to lead an innovative radiotherapy research portfolio, aiming to deliver survival and quality-of-life improvements for cancer patients. 

Clinical oncology professional learning and development sub-committee (04/2016 - current)

Royal College of Radiologists, UK

Greater Manchester lung cancer pathway committee (09/2015 - 09/2016)

Christie NHS Foundation Trust, UK

Ambassador member (1/2013 - current)

European Association for Cancer Research (EACR)

PhD in Medicine (University of Manchester, UK)- 2017

PGCert in Medical Education (University of Dundee, UK)- 2017

Fellowship of Higher Educational Academy (FHEA)- 2016

Fellow of Royal College of Radiologists- Clinical Oncology (FRCR)- 2015

MRCP speciality certificate exam in Medical Oncology- 2015

ESMO certificate exam in Medical Oncology- 2015

Fellow of the European Society of Radiotherapy and Oncology (FESTRO)- 2014

Jordan Board of Radiation Oncology (Board-certified radiation oncologist)- 2014

Masters of Science (MSc) in Oncology (Newcastle University, UK)- 2013        

MB ChB in Medicine and Surgery (Cairo, Egypt)- 2005

Research interests

Biomarker-driven drug/ radiotherapy trials, radiotherapy biomarkers, tumour hypoxia, hypoxia biomarkers, functional imaging (MRI and PET)

Research dissertations

2017

PhD dissertation: “Validating non-invasive therapeutic lung cancer biomarkers”

2013                            

MSc dissertation: “Comparison between combined photon-electron, photon-only and electron-only plans in the supraclavicular irradiation of breast cancer patients: A dosimetric study”

Selected peer reviewed published articles (of n=60)

Saha A, Dickinson P, Shrimali RJ, Salem A, Agarwal A. Is thoracic radiotherapy an absolute contraindication for treatment of lung cancer patients with interstitial lung disease? A systematic review. Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). In Press.

Abravan A, Salem A, Price G, Faivre-Finn C, van Herk M. Effect of systemic inflammation biomarkers on overall survival after lung cancer radiotherapy: a single-center large-cohort study. Acta Oncol. 2022 Jan 3;1-9.

Burnet NG, Mee T, Gaito S, Kirkby NF, Aitkenhead AH, Anandadas CN, Aznar MC, Barraclough LH, Borst G, Charlwood FC, Clarke M, Colaco RJ, Crellin AM, Defourney NN, Hague CJ, Harris M, Henthorn NT, Hopkins KI, Hwang E, Ingram SP, Kirkby KJ, Lee LW, Lines D, Lingard Z, Lowe M, Mackay RI, McBain CA, Merchant MJ, Noble DJ, Pan S, Price JM, Radhakrishna G, Reboredo-Gil D, Salem A, Sashidharan S, Sitch P, Smith E, Smith EAK, Taylor MJ, Thomson DJ, Thorp NJ, Underwood TSA, Warmenhoven JW, Wylie JP, Whitfield GA. Estimating the percentage of patients who might benefit from Proton Beam Therapy instead of X-ray radiotherapy. Br J Radiol. In press. 

Tang C, Mistry H, Bayman N, Chan C, Cobben D, Faivre-Finn C, Harris M, Kennedy J, Pemberton L, Price G, Sheikh H, Woolf D, Coote J, Salem A. Outcomes of curative-intent radiotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and interstitial lung disease (ILD). Radiother Oncol. 2021 Feb. 2021 Jul;160:78-81.

Liao Z, Rivin Del Campo E, Salem A, Pang Q, Liu H, Lopez Guerra JL. Optimizing lung cancer radiation treatment worldwide in COVID-19 outbreak. Lung Cancer. 2020 Aug;146:230-235.

Cacicedo A, Navarro-Martin A, Gonzalez-Larragan S, Salem A, De Bari B, Dahele M. Systematic review of educational interventions to improve contouring in radiotherapy. Radiother Oncol. 2020 Mar;144:86-92.

Salem A, Little RA, Babur M, Featherstone AK, Peset I, Cheung S, Watson Y, Latif A, Tessyman V, Mistry H, Ashton G, Behan C, Matthews JC, Asselin MC, Bristow RG, Jackson A, Williams KJ, Parker GJM, Faivre-Finn C, O’Connor JPB. Oxygen-enhanced MRI identifies, quantifies and maps therapyinduced change in lung cancer hypoxia. Clin Cancer Res. 2019 Jul 1;25(13):3818-3829. 

Impact factor = 12.53 (featured as an issue highlight, presented as an award lecture at the premier European radiation oncology conference; ESTRO 2018).

Manoharan P, Salem A*, Mistry H, Gornall M, Harden S, Julyan P, Locke I, McAleese J, McMenemin R, Mohammed N, Snee M, Woods S, Westwood T, Faivre-Finn C. [18F]fludeoxyglucose PET/CT in small-cell lung cancer: Analysis of the Concurrent Once-daily VErsus twice-daily RadioTherapy 
(CONVERT) randomized controlled trial. J Thorac Oncol. 2019 Jul;14(7):1296-1305.
*Joint first authorship (equal contribution)
Impact factor = 15.61 (presented as an oral presentation with an invited discussant in the premier worldwide thoracic oncology conference; IASLC WCLC 2018 with widespread interest)
2018

Salem A, Mistry H, Hatton M, Locke I, Monnet I, Blackhall F, Faivre-Finn C. Association of Chemoradiotherapy With Outcomes Among Patients With Stage I to II vs Stage III Small Cell Lung Cancer: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Oncol. 2018 Dec 6.

Impact factor = 31.78 (presented as an oral presentation with an invited discussant in Europe’s premier thoracic oncology conference; European Lung Cancer Congress 2017). This paper was integrated into two international lung cancer clinical practice guidelines (ESMO and 
ASTRO) and was published with an invited editor's note: West HJ. Moving Beyond Limited and Extensive Staging of Small Cell Lung Cancer. JAMA oncology. 2019 Mar 1;5(3):e185187-

Salem A, Mistry H, Backen A, Hodgson C, Koh P, Dean E, Priest L, Trigonis I, Jackson A, Asselin MC, Dive C, Renehan A, Faivre-Finn C, Blackhall F. Cell-death, inflammation, tumor-burden and proliferation blood biomarkers predict lung cancer radiotherapy response and correlate with proliferation imaging. Clin Lung Cancer. Proof published online:

http://www.clinical-lung-cancer.com/article/S1525-7304(17)30341-8/abstract

Salem A, Asselin MC, Reymen B, Jackson A, Lambin P, O’Connor JPB, West CML, Faivre-Finn C. Targeting hypoxia to improve non-small cell lung cancer outcome. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2018 Jan; 110(1):14-30.

Published with invited editorial: Lin SH, Koong AC. Breathing New Life Into Hypoxia-Targeted Therapies for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2018 Jan 1;110(1):1-2.

Bainbridge H, Salem A, Tijssen RHN, Dubec M, Wetscherek A, Van Es C, Belderbos J, Faivre-Finn C, McDonald F. On behalf of the lung tumour site group of the international Atlantic MR-Linac Consortium. Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Precision Radiation Therapy for Lung Cancer. Transl Lung Cancer Res 2017;6(6):689-707.

Geara FB, Bulbul M, Khauli RB, Andraos TY, Abboud M, Al Mousa A, Sarhan N, Salem A, Ghatasheh H, Alnsour A, Ayoub Z, Gheida IA, Charafeddine M, Shahait M, Shamseddine A, Gheida RA, Khader J. Nadir PSA is a strong predictor of treatment outcome in intermediate and high risk localized prostate cancer patients treated by definitive external beam radiotherapy and androgen deprivation. Radiat Oncol. 2017 Sep 7;12(1):149.

Mohamad M, Salem A, Abu Hejleh T, Wadi-Ramahi S, Qandeel M, El Khatib S, Asha A, Mhied S, Al-Saraireh O, Al-Gargaz W, Abdulelah H, Hosni A, Al Mousa A. Peer-assisted learning: Intensity modulated radiotherapy transition in developing countries. Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 2017 Oct;29(10):689-695.

Salem A, Bayman N. Multidisciplinary team (MDT) service redesign: A step to improved quality of care for lung cancer patients. Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 2016 Dec;28(12):800-801.

Salem A, O’Connor J. Assessment of angiogenesis with MRI: DCE-MRI and beyond. Magn Reson Imaging Clin N Am. 2016 Feb;24(1):45-56.

2017 –                        

Lead, Clinical oncology educational webinar series, Royal College of Radiologists, UK

Example webinar: https://www.rcr.ac.uk/clinical-oncology/webinar-co-journal-club-quartz-trial

2017 –                         

Post-graduate oncology education module assessor, Dundee University/ Royal College of Radiologists, UK

2017                            

Speaker and co-organizer, Controversies in the management of patients with lung cancer & Lung cancer FALCON contouring workshop, Royal College of Radiologists 2017 annual meeting

2016 –                         

I have taken part in the development of a post-graduate oncology education module, Dundee University/ Royal College of Radiologists, UK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRLENROv_xk

2016 –    

Clinical oncology professional learning and development sub-committee member, Royal College of Radiologists, UK

2016 –                         

Thoracic oncology organ at risk contouring online FALCON workshop tutor, European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology

2016 –                         

Weekly medical student teaching, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, UK

2015 –                         

Dynamic online virtual ESTRO taskforce member, European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology

2015 –                         

ESTRO global learning objective creator (management of locally-advanced NSCLC), European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology

https://www.estro.org/search/Type/EGLO?type=Activities&type=EGLO&q=&page=1

2015 –                         

Medical student personal and professional tutor (year 1-2), University of Manchester, UK 

2015 –                         

Christie FRCR course faculty, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, UK