He was a visiting professor, King's College London, Senior Clinical Research Consultant at the Italian Institute for Molecular Oncology (IFOM) Milan, and Non Executive Director at Ellipses Pharma Ltd, UK Chair of ORIL, Australia and Chair of the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine.

In 1970, McVie took an MRC research fellowship at Edinburg University, Department of Therapeutics, investigating Hodgkin lymphoma.

Under Gordon Hamilton-Fairley and Sir Kenneth Calman, he trained in the United States, spending sabbaticals at the NCI, Bethesda, Paris, Sydney, Australia and Amsterdam.

In 1979, McVie became the Clinical Research Director at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, and Consultant in Medical Oncology at the Antoni van Leewenhoek hospital in Amsterdam.

He set up a clinical research unit to test new molecules and devices, and synergised the new institute with other leading cancer centres throughout the world.