Dirk Arnold completed his MD degree at the Universities of Ulm and Berlin in Germany, and he undertook specialist training at Charité, Humboldt University in Berlin.
Subsequently, he trained as a medical oncologist and specialist in palliative care at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Halle, Germany. In 2009, he qualified with a clinical PhD thesis on multimodal treatment aspects for colorectal cancer. He has held the positions of Professor and Chair of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Unit at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. In 2010, he was appointed as Full Professor for Oncology at University Hamburg and held the position as Director of the University Cancer Center Hamburg until 2013, before he became Director of the Department of Medical Oncology of the Klinik für Tumorbiologie at University Freiburg. In 2015, he additionally got appointed as Director of oncology services at the Instituto CUF de Oncologia in Lisbon, Portugal – a position he held full time until 2017.
Since then (2017), Professor Arnold is holding the position as Director of Asklepios Tumorzentrum Hamburg, a large network Comprehensive Cancer Centre, and chairman of the Department for Oncology, Haematology and Rheumatology at AK Altona, Hamburg.
His main research interests include the treatment of gastrointestinal and genitourinary cancers, specifically in molecular-targeted therapies, immunotherapy, multimodal treatment strategies and early drug developments. He is also interested in research network structures and methodology of clinical research and benefit evaluation procedures, as well as in palliative and supportive care.
Prof. Arnold served as Chairman of the Colorectal Cancer Study Group of the Working Group for Internal Oncology (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Internistische Onkologie [AIO]). He initiated the Central Trial Office – which became later a non-for-profit-CRO – at the German Cancer Society (Deutsche Krebsgesellschaft), which he ran as CEO for several years, indicating his high interest in clinical research. He is a key member of several German and other international cancer societies, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), where he serves at various roles, including as an Executive Board member and Council member. Currently, he is serving as chairman of the ESMO Compliance Committee.
Within the ESMO Faculty, he served Section Editor for Gastrointestinal Cancers in the Guideline Committee until 2018, and (continued) as Subject Editor for Annals of Oncology, Gastrointestinal Cancer Track. He is also a member of the Task Force on Colorectal Cancer at the Gastrointestinal Cancer Study Group of the EORTC. He also served as an Executive Board member for the German Society of Haematology and Medical Oncology, as well as for the European CanCer Organisation (ECCO).
