Dr Irene De Francesco is a consultant clinical oncologist at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust since 2018 and honorary senior clinical lecturer at King's College London. She specialises in the treatment of skin cancer and colorectal cancer, with special interest in anal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). She has experience using advanced radiotherapy techniques, including VMAT, skin brachytherapy and SABR (radiosurgery).

Irene also has expertise in treating benign conditions with radiotherapy, including: Dupuytren's Disease, Ledderhose Disease, keloids.

Irene completed her medical training at Sapienza University Medical School in Rome, Italy. Following this, she trained in clinical oncology at Sapienza University and The Royal Marsden Hospital in 2016. Here she worked as a research fellow for three years and conducted research in anal cancer, focusing on modern radiotherapy techniques, assessment and improvement of treatment related toxicity.

Her interest in technical radiotherapy and advanced imaging techniques brought her to the University College Hospital as a research fellow, where she joined the consortium for the European project INSERT. This project lead to the development of an integrated single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) MRI system for assessment of treatment response during and after chemo-radiotherapy.

In 2017, Irene joined the Sarah Cannon Research Institute as a research fellow, gaining more experience managing national and international clinical trials. Irene continues to have a strong interest in research and clinical trials. She is the primary investigator for clinical trials involving use of radiotherapy and systemic treatment in skin cancers and is actively involved in clinical trials and advanced radiotherapy techniques for anal cancer treatment.