[The website focussing on clinical care is at https://londonbreastcancer.com]
I am a Professor of Surgery and Oncology and Consultant Surgeon specialising in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the breast in London. I currently divide my time equally between research and clinical work.
I have over 200 original scientific publications in a wide range of medical fields. My main research aim over the past twenty years has been to improve our understanding and treatment of breast cancer.
I have given over 150 invited talks, mainly on breast cancer, in scientific conferences, including at the British Association of Surgical Oncologists, European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC), European Cancer Conference (ECCO), Milan breast cancer conference, Miami Breast Cancer Conference, American Society of Breast Surgeons, American Society of Clinical Oncology (Breast), American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), and the San Antonio breast cancer conference.
I have been invited to contribute to several books on breast cancer. The latest edition of my book “Fast Facts – Breast Cancer” was released in June 2014 and is available as a paperback, Kindle and eBook editions.
A shorter Fast Facts: Early Breast Cancer was published in December 2016
I have been featured in Time magazine, Reader’s digest and am regularly invited to speak on the BBC.
Research
My work on Intraoperative Radiotherapy (IORT) was inspired by my original laboratory work in 1994, leading to the idea that breast cancer treatment with surgery and radiotherapy needs to be focussed and targeted. Working with Professor Michael Baum and Professor Jeffrey S Tobias, in UCL, London, I developed the concept, tools (Intrabeam) and the surgical operative procedure (TARGIT IORT) to give targeted intraoperative radiotherapy to the tissues immediately around a breast cancer, after it is surgically removed (lumpectomy). I named this technique TARGIT- for TARGeted Intraoperative radioTherapy and it is commonly called Intrabeam TARGIT IORT.
The Intrabeam TARGIT IORT procedure has been now been used to treat in over 20,000 breast cancer patients worldwide. I would encourage the interested reader to visit the Intrabeam TARGIT IORT webpages giving the details of TARGIT-A trial. Given as a tumour bed boost, TARGIT IORT appears to achieve more than 98% durable local control in unselected cases. This has lead to the TARGIT-B trial, which will inform us whether Intrabeam TARGIT IORT given as a boost is superior to the standard radiotherapy boost.
Here are some of my talks about breast cancer research including Intrabeam TARGIT IORT on YouTube.
In 2021, our research on TARGIT-IORT for breast cancer was hailed as one of the “Five Major Breakthroughs… ” by the UK National Institute of Health Research alongside the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine and two COVID-19 treatments.
Here is a public lecture hosted by UCL about this breast cancer radiation treatment that is completed during the lumpectomy surgery for breast cancer followed by a QA session.
My academic position is Professor of Surgery and Oncology at University College London, London, UK and I am the Scientific Director of the Surgical Interventional Trials Unit of the Division of Surgery, University College London.
Clinical
My clinical practice is mainly at the King Edward VII hospital and the London Clinic. Please see London Breast Cancer for more details
I have extensive experience in all aspects of breast cancer surgery including lumpectomy, wide local excision and quadrantectomy for breast cancer including glandular reconstruction, sentinel node biopsy / axillary sampling, axillary clearance, and targeted intraoperative radiotherapy, – Intrabeam TARGIT IORT – a particular type of IORT. I work in conjunction with renowned plastic surgeons for breast reconstructive surgery.
We take a multidisciplinary approach to breast cancer treatment and work very closely in a renowned team of medical oncologists, radiotherapists, radiologists and pathologists, breast care nurses, and specialists in psychosocial care.
I believe in compassionate evidence-based practice that takes into consideration every individual’s health, circumstance and perspective.
Inspiration
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
… from Gitanjali by the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore