NIHR directory

Dr Richard Lee

Dr Richard Lee is the NIHR Clinical Research Network National Specialty Lead for Screening, Prevention and Early Detection.

He is a Consultant Respiratory Physician and Champion for Early Cancer Diagnosis at the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at The Royal Marsden and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). As co-lead of The Royal Marsden-ICR Early Diagnosis and Detection Centre, Dr Lee drives Screening, Prevention and Early Diagnosis initiatives across a number of cancer types. 

His clinical interest is early lung cancer diagnosis, as joint National Clinical Lead of the NHS England National Targeted Lung Health Check (TLHC) Programme that will pilot lung cancer screening in an eligible population of over three million participants across the UK. 

His research portfolio includes translation of artificial intelligence (AI) research to early cancer detection within the LIBRA, OCTAPUS-AI and AI-SONAR studies. He is also Principal Investigator for early diagnosis biomarker studies such as NIMBLE for lung nodules and The Royal Marsden Partners Lung Health Check biomarker study. As clinical lead for the SCOOT biomarker study, he will link biomarker research with imaging AI, within NHSE TLHC in partnership with Oxford University and the DART consortium. 

Dr Lee is also The Royal Marsden’s Chief Research Information Officer, serves on the British Thoracic Society’s lung cancer committee, and co-leads the Early Diagnosis theme of the Joint ICR-Imperial Convergence Science Centre and NIHR Oncology Translational Research Collaboration. 

His work in Early Diagnosis is funded by The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity with whom he works closely to promote early diagnosis amongst patients and colleagues.