Alexios Matikas

Alexios Matikas

Affiliated to Research | Associate Professor
Visiting address: BioClinicum, Bioclinicum J5:30, Akademiska stråket 1, 17164 Solna
Postal address: K7 Onkologi-Patologi, K7 Forskning Foukakis Matikas, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • I'm a senior consultant in medical oncology at Breast Center, Karolinska Comprehensive Cancer Center, research team leader and associate professor of oncology (docent) at Karolinska Institutet, appointed in May 2021. Since 2024 I also serve as deputy director of doctoral education (biträdande studierektor) at the Oncology/Pathology department and as a member of Karolinska Institute's Dissertation Committee (Disputationskommittén).

    Received my MD from Aristotle University Medical School, Greece with a scholarship for academic excellence, a MSc in cancer cell biology from Athens Medical School as the valedictorian and a Doctoral Degree (PhD) in circulating tumor cells from Crete Medical School. Following a 1-year research fellowship under the ESMO Georges Mathé fellowship for immuno-oncology (2016-2017, Karolinska Institutet), 11/2017 I started working as postdoc on breast cancer immunology at Karolinska Institutet and as a consultant physician at the breast cancer center, Karolinska University Hospital.

    Parallel to my clinical work, research and teaching I'm also heavily involved with the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). I was previously a member of the Young Oncologists' committee (2020-2023) and the OncologyPRO working group *2022-2025), while currently I serve as a member of the Leadership Development committee and the Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale working group. 

    In addition, I'm a member of the Swedish National Guidelines committee for breast cancer as responsible for the adjuvant therapy guidelines and a committee member for the regional Stockholm treatment guidelines.

    Current team composition: 

    Xingrong Liu Staff biostatistician

    Michail Sarafidis Postdoc bioinformatician

    Dimitrios Salgkamis PhD student

    Behnaz Binicy PhD student

    Team alumni: 

    Caroline Boman PhD student, dissertation 24/10/2025

Research

  • My clinical and research interest lies in breast cancer:

    -as a co-investigator and primary investigator of numerous clinical trials, including co-PI of the ongoing academic international ARIADNE trial (NCT05900206)
    -registry-based studies aiming to give answers to pertinent clinical questions in breast oncology
    -translational research focusing on the tumor-host relationship with both spatial and temporal interrogation of the underlying biology using multi-omics methods

    My research is supported by:

    • Vetenskapsrådet
    • Cancerfonden
    • Radiumhemmets Forskningsfonder 
    • Bröstcancerförbundet 
    • Karolinska Institutet 
    • Svenska Läkaresällskapet 
    • Iris, Stig och Gerry Castenbäcks
    • Percy Falk stipend for breast and prostate cancer
    • Region Stockholm
    • European Society for Medical Oncology

Teaching

  • I'm currently deputy director of doctoral education (biträdande studierektor) at OnkPat, main supervisor of three PhD students at Karolinska Institutet and co-supervisor of five students (four at KI, one at Sahlgrenska). I've also supervised a number of MSc and ERASMUS+ students. In addition:

    - 11 weeks of training in teaching in higher education, PhD supervision and pedagogy
    - Approximately 260 hours of teaching in accordance with criteria for docentur, Karolinska Institutet
    - Co-creator of “Academy of Breast Oncology”, a series of webinars intended for young oncologists (12/2020 – 2/2025), total of 13 webinars with participation of international opinion leaders in the field
    - Head and co-creator of a course for doctoral students, “Basic principles of clinical and translational research”, Karolinska Institutet

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2026 - 31 December 2031
    The ongoing revolution in the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer has led to the rapid approval of multiple drugs with broad efficacy, potential for toxicity and high associated costs for all-comer populations with no attempt for biomarker discovery. In the ongoing academic, international, randomized ARIADNE trial (NCT05900206) which the applicant leads as co-PI we compare preoperative trastuzumab deruxtecan and standard of care chemotherapy combined with anti-HER2 antibodies (TCHP), and we allocate patients to treatment according to the underlying biology of their tumors by using PAM50 subtypes. With this project, we aim to leverage multi-omic analyses of baseline samples (whole exome and RNA-sequencing, mass spectrometry proteomics) and extraction of pathomics and radiomics features from whole slide images and MRI images, respectively. We will then perform machine learning-based multimodal integration of the best predictive, not simply prognostic, features to construct a predictive model for patient selection for treatment with antibody-drug conjugate or chemotherapy and dual HER2-blockade combination. The uniqueness of the clinical trial, revolutionary efficacy of trastuzumab deruxtecan, comprehensive methodology, and rigorous external validation underscore both the scientific novelty and the potential clinical significance of the proposed project.
  • Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2023
    Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women - one in 8 women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. A large number of studies of tens of thousands of women with early breast cancer have shown that chemotherapy after surgical resection of the tumor improves survival in these patients. One such study was the Swedish PANTHER study. Chemotherapy can also be given before resection with equivalent effect, as in the Swedish PREDIX Lum B study and the international EORTC "p53" study. Lack of reliable markers sometimes leads to undertreatment and more often to overtreatment, which means more side effects and increased costs. The project concerns the analysis of tumor material already taken from patients who participated in the PANTHER, PREDIX Lum B and EORTC studies and focuses on hormone-sensitive breast cancer, which is considered a less aggressive variant. However, these patients have a long-standing and increasing risk of cancer recurrence and benefit greatly from chemotherapy, while some are exposed to unnecessary side effects. Gene expression, clinical factors and the immune microenvironment will be analyzed and the factors with the greatest predictive/prognostic value will then be integrated into a model expected to have a much higher predictive capacity compared to models from single sources. With this project, we intend to create a new prognostic and predictive tool that can help us select the right treatment for the right patient with hormone-sensitive early breast cancer - 70% of all breast cancer cases. In other words, we will create a tool that can help us limit chemotherapy to only those breast cancer patients who need it most. In the long term, this project is expected to lead to clinically useful markers to be able to select, on an individual level, suitable candidates who are treated with optimized treatments: better effect, fewer side effects and reduced costs are the project's goals.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2020 - 31 December 2024

Employments

  • Affiliated to Research, Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, 2026-2029
  • Associate Professor, Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, 2023-2026

Supervision

  • Supervision to doctoral degree

    • Behnaz Khalilzadeh Binicy, Studies on controversies in the treatment of early breast cancer., 2024-
    • Maria Angeliki Toli, Prognostic and predictive markers after neoadjuvant therapy in breast cancer, 2023-

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