Smolej Lukáš

Lukáš Smolej is Professor of Internal Medicine at the Charles University Faculty of Medicine as well as Deputy Head for Science in the 4th Department of Internal Medicine, Charles University Hospital in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic. He completed his medical training in internal medicine (2005) and hematology (2008) in Hradec Králové after undertaking a research fellowship (2004) in the Department of Immunology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, USA.

Prof. Smolej specializes in the field of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). His scientific focus includes novel prognostic and predictive factors, immune defects, angiogenesis, and microenvironment in CLL as well as novel therapeutic approaches, assessment of fitness, functional capacity, and comorbidities in patients with CLL. He was the Chairman of the Czech CLL Study Group (CCLLSG) for 6 years and currently serves as the First Vice–Chairman. He is also an active member of many societies, including European Research Initiative on CLL (ERIC) and European Hematology Association (EHA). He pioneered the use of chemoimmunotherapy in the Czech Republic; for example, he served as the chief investigator of “Project Q-lite” – an observational study of low-dose FCR in elderly/comorbid patients with CLL, and he introduced the R-dex (rituximab + high-dose dexamethasone) regimen for the treatment of relapsed/refractory CLL. Prof. Smolej has acted as a writing committee member, steering committee member, or member of a data safety monitoring board in international clinical trials in CLL. He has received numerous scientific awards, including the Czech League Against Cancer Award (2007, 2013) and the Janssen Award for best clinical research poster at the International CLL Workshop in Bonn, Germany, in 2014.

Taking an active role in the medical community, Prof. Smolej has participated in many scientific events, including as the CLL section chair for the EHA meeting in 2015 and an abstract and education session reviewer for the EHA meeting in 2016. Furthermore, he is a reviewer for several top journals, which include The Lancet, Blood, Leukemia, and Haematologica. He has authored or co-authored 109 peer-reviewed articles in high-quality journals such as Lancet Oncology, Blood, American Journal of Hematology, Haematologica, Annals of Oncology, Lancet Haematology, and British Journal of Haematology, and he has a total of 822 citations, with an H-index of 14.