My goal is to drive high quality clinical & translational research that directly impacts on breast cancer patients. Key areas of research are in patterns of metastasic spread, cancer stem cells, pathophysiology of lymphoedema, sentinel lymph node biopsy, terahertz imaging, cancer and evolutionary biology & cancer outcomes. Our RCT in SLN biopsy has contributed to advances in patient care internationally. Our ongoing work on understanding the pathophysiology of lymphoedema is demonstrating that there may be a constitutive predeliction for the development of lymphoedema. Understanding the characteristics of stem cells will allow us to identify new targets for treating breast cancer which may potentially result in more effective systemic therapy. We have commenced the first in vivo study in q3 2012 using terahertz technology to detect malignant tissue at margins of excision with a view to reducing the re-excision rate in breast-conserving surgery and also performing intra-operative assessment of the sentinel lymph node. Our work on national and international variations in cancer survival aims to address the reasons for differences in survival within the UK & also between the UK and other countries. UK collaborations are with Cambridge, Sussex & Manchester (International - Vancouver, Hamburg, Mumbai, Milan, Sweden, Finland, Chile)

Molecular profiling and stem/progenitor cells, breast cancer-related lymphoedema, patterns of metastatic spread, cancer survival outcomes, sentinel lymph node biopsy and novel intraoperative imaging in breast cancer.