Professor Alan Horwich trained in oncology initially at Harvard, Boston, and then at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London. During his oncology training he conducted laboratory research in RNA Tumour Viruses for a PhD at The Imperial Cancer Research Fund laboratories. Following training in Clinical Oncology he was appointed Consultant at The Royal Marsden in 1983, and in 1986 he was also appointed to the University of London Chair in Radiotherapy at The Institute of Cancer Research. His career involved patient care and management research in urological cancer and lymphomas, associated with developmental research in radiotherapy including conformal, intensity-modulated and image-guidance techniques. He was Chair of the Medical Research Council Testicular Cancer Working Group during years of research on Surveillance and on Carboplatin, and was a member also of the EORTC GU Group. He was Dean of the Institute of Cancer Research for 12 years and Director of Research for The Royal Marsden Hospital for 9 years.

Currently, he is on the EORTC Independent Data Monitoring Committee and on the Trial Steering Group for STAMPEDE. In ESMO he is responsible for Guidelines in GU cancers.