Prof. Brigette Ma
馬碧如教授
Honorary Consultant, Hong Kong Hospital Authority
Medical Director, Phase 1 Clinical Trial Centre, CUHK
Specific Research / Sites of Interest
New drug development and clinical research: designing and conducting phase I clinical trials, novel therapies for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, colorectal cancer and other gastrointestinal cancers.Translational research in novel therapeutics in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and preclinical evaluation of novel drugs and biomarkers of drug response.
The use of functional imaging (e.g. positron-emission tomography, dynamic-contrast magnetic resonance imaging) in the pharmacodynamic evaluation of novel therapies.
Short Biography
Dr. Brigette Ma is currently Professor and Honorary Consultant at the Department of Clinical Oncology, Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Medical Director of the Phase I Clinical Trial Centre (Oncology) and Chair of the NTEC-CUHK ethics committee for phase 1 studies. She received her undergraduate degree with Honours at Monash University, Australia, and was awarded Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Fellow of Hong Kong College of Physicians, and Doctor of Medicine (CUHK). She underwent training in Medical Oncology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, Melbourne, and was Research Fellow at the Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Canada. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers. Notably, she had been a Faculty member of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Gastrointestinal Cancer, and was a member of the Consensus Working Group for the management of metastatic colorectal cancer; executive member of the National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, USA) Head and Neck Cancer Steering Committee - Clinical Trials Planning Group on Nasopharyngeal Cancer, Co-chair of Widely Metastatic Group; mentor and committee member of the Women in Cancer Research of the American Association of Cancer Research; and Scientific Co-chair of ESMO (Asia) conference 2023 in Singapore. Her other current roles included: member of the Joint Scientific Committee for Phase 1 Clinical Trials, Centre of Health Protection, Hong Kong Hospital Authority; Track Chair/ member of the Scientific Committee American Association of Cancer Research, ESMO congresses. She is study chair for NRG oncology clinical trial in NPC, Scientific Co-chair of the ESMO Targeted Anticancer Therapies Asia Congress 2025 and co-chairs for some ESMO advanced course/ workshops concerning early drug development. She is Associate Editor of Oral Oncology and is member of the Editorial Board for ESMO Open (GI) and Clinical Colorectal Cancer amongst other journals.Most Representative Publications
1. Wong KCW, Hui EP, Lo KW, Lam WKJ, Johnson D, Li L, Tao Q, Chan KCA, To KF, King AD, Ma BBY*, Chan ATC* (*Joint senior authors). Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: An Evolving Paradigm. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 2021;18:679–695. doi:10.1038/s41571-021-00524-x |
2. Ma BBY, Hui EP, Chan ATC. The expanding universe of checkpoint inhibitors for nasopharyngeal cancer, Nat Med 2021;27(9):1512-1513. doi:10.1038/s41591-021-01482-8 |
3. Ma BBY, Thu Le Q. Hot on the trail in the TME: Clues from a trilogy of checkpoint inhibitor trials in nasopharyngeal cancer. Cancer Cell. 2023 Jun 12;41(6):1006-1008. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2023.04.013. |
4. Ma B, King AD, Leung L, Wang K, Poon A, Ho WM, Mo F, Chan CML, Chan ATC, Wong SCS. Identifying an early indicator of drug efficacy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer - a prospective evaluation of circulating tumor cells, 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography and the RECIST criteria. Ann Oncol. 2017; 28(7):1576-81. |
5. Li YY, Chung GT, Lui VW, TO KF, Ma BB, Chow C, Woo JK, Yip KY, Seo JS, Hui EP, Mak MK, Rusan M, Chau NG, Or YY, Law MH, Law PP, Liu ZW, Ngan HL, Hau PM, Verhoeft KR, Poon PH, Yoo SK, Shin JY, Lee SD, Lun SW, Jia L, Chan AW, Chan JY, Lai PB, Fung CY, Hung ST, Wang L, Chang AM, Chiosea SI, Hedberg ML, Tsao SW, van Hasselt AC, Chan AT, Grandis JR, Hammerman PS, Lo KW*. Exome and genome sequencing of nasopharynx cancer identifies NF-KB pathway activating mutations. Nat Commun. 2017 Jan 18; 8:14121. |
6. Chan KCA, Woo JKS, King A, Zee B, Lam JWK, Chan SL, Chu SW, Mak C, Tse I, Leung S, Chan G, Hui EP, Ma BBY, Chiu RWK, Leung SF, Van Hasselt A, Chan ATC, Lo YMD. Analysis of Plasma Epstein–Barr Virus DNA to Screen for Nasopharyngeal Cancer. N Engl J Med. 2017; 377:513-22. |
7. Van Cutsem E, Cervantes A, Adam R, Sobrero A, Van Krieken JH, Aderka D, Aranda Aguilar E, Bardelli A, Benson A, Bodoky G, Ciardiello F, D'Hoore A, Diaz-Rubio E, Douillard JY, Ducreux M, Falcone A, Grothey A, Gruenberger T, Haustermans K, Heinemann V, Hoff P, Köhne CH, Labianca R, Laurent-Puig P, Ma B, Maughan T, Muro K, Normanno N, Österlund P, Oyen WJ, Papamichael D, Pentheroudakis G, Pfeiffer P, Price TJ, Punt C, Ricke J, Roth A, Salazar R, Scheithauer W, Schmoll HJ, Tabernero J, Taïeb J, Tejpar S, Wasan H, Yoshino T, Zaanan A, Arnold DArnold. European Society of Medical Oncology Consensus Guidelines for the management of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer – 2016. Ann Oncol 2016; 27(8):1386-422. |
8. Li J, Qin SK, Xu R, Yau T, Ma BBY, Pan H, Xu J, Bai Y, Chi Y, Wang L, Yeh KH, Bi F, Cheng Y, Le AT, Lin JK, Liu T, Ma D, Kappeler C, Kalmus J, Kim TW, on behalf of the CONCUR Investigators. Regorafenib monotherapy in Asian patients with previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer (CONCUR): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2015; 16(6):619-29. |
9. Lee A, Ma B, Ng WT, Chan ATC. The management of nasopharyngeal carcinoma – current practice and future perspective. J Clin Oncol. 2015; 33(29):3356-64. |
10. Ma BBY, EP Hui, TSK Mok. Population-based differences in treatment outcome following anti-cancer drug therapies. Lancet Oncol. 2010; 11(1):75-84. |
11. Ma B, Bristow R, Kim J, Siu L. Combined-modality treatment of solid tumors using radiotherapy and molecular targeted agents. J Clin Oncol 2003; 21(14)2760-76. |
12. Wu M, Hau PM, Li L, Tsang CM, Yang Y, Taghbalout A, Chung GTY, Hui SY, Tang WC, Jillette N, Zhu JJ, Lee HHY, Kong EL, Chan MSA, Chan JYK, Ma BBY, Chen MR, Lee C, To KF, Cheng AW, Lo KW. Synthetic BZLF1-targeted transcriptional activator for efficient lytic induction therapy against EBV-associated epithelial cancers. Nat Commun. 2024;15(1):3729. doi:10.1038/s41467-024-48031-8 |