Dr. Klaus Pantel, MD. PhD., is Full Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Institute of Tumour Biology at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. The institute is part of the University Cancer Centre Hamburg (UCCH). The pioneer work of Dr. Pantel in the field of cancer micro-metastasis and circulating tumour cells (“liquid biopsy”) is reflected by more than 400 publications in excellent high ranking biomedical and scientific journals (incl. NEJM, Lancet, Nature Journals, PNAS, JCO, JNCI, Cancer Res., h-index: 88) and has been awarded recently (AACR Outstanding Investigator Award 2010, German Cancer Award 2010, ERC Advanced Investigator Grant 2011). Prof. Pantel is in the Editorial Board of international cancer journals (e.g., Cancer Res., Clin. Cancer Res.) and lead-PI of several European Reseach networks focusing on cancer metastasis and liquid biopsy analysis. Currently Dr. Pantel is the Scientific coordinator of the Cancer-ID consortium, a large EU-funded innovative medicines initiative with 38 partner institutions, which aims at clinical validation of blood-based biomarkers intended to be used as companion diagnostic in cancer therapy (http://www.cancer-id.eu/).