University of Otago professor of cancer medicine Christopher Jackson was named in OncoDaily’s list of "The 100 Most Influential People in Oncology in 2025" at the weekend.
The list recognised changemakers in cancer care who had helped shape current practice in oncology "and continue to drive innovation and research towards better outcomes, advocacy, philanthropy, leadership and education," OncoDaily said.
Prof Jackson said yesterday making the list was completely unexpected.
It had popped up on LinkedIn while he was doing "the morning doomscroll".
"It’s pretty surreal to be in the list of the Who’s Who of global oncology.
"To be in the company of some of the people on that list, it’s pretty humbling."
OncoDaily was the number one daily oncology news source in the world and was pretty well-respected, Prof Jackson said.
He joked he did not even make the top list of his own household.
"What Kiwi ever goes around thinking they’re the top 100 in anything, right? Unless you’re Richie McCaw."
Prof Jackson, who is also the deputy dean of the university’s Faculty of Medicine, was in 2024 elected to the board of the Union for International Cancer Control.
He believed it was for this work he had made the list, which he said involved connecting with other countries and sharing the work happening in New Zealand.
Also on the list were Gates Foundation co-chairman Bill Gates, Catherine, Princess of Wales — who publicly announced her cancer diagnosis in 2024 — and philanthropists Mark Cuban and Michael Bloomberg.
Cancer advocates Michael Buble and Patrick Dempsey, known for his role as Dr Derek Shepherd ("McDreamy") on Grey’s Anatomy, were named too.
To be among such names was "trippy", but the people on the list had "genuinely made a great contribution to the field of cancer leadership", Prof Jackson said.
London-based academic Prof Richard Sullivan and clinician scientist Prof Charles Swanton — whom he regarded as the "greatest molecular oncology scientist in the world" — were people on the list he particularly looked up to.
"There’s some amazing people and to be muttered in the same list — surreal is the only word I can think of."
The number of oncologists in the field globally was in the hundreds of thousands, he said.
"So to make top 100 is pretty wild."
