2021 Faculty

Executive Committee

Conference Chairs

Christine Brezden-Masley

Christine Brezden-Masley MD PhD FRCPC
Medical Oncologist, Mount Sinai Hospital
Medical Director, Cancer Program for Sinai Health
Director, Marvelle Koffler Breast Centre, Mount Sinai Hospital
Senior Clinical Scientist, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital
Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto

Christine Brezden-Masley, MD PhD FRCPC is a practicing Medical Oncologist and the Director of the Marvelle Koffler Breast Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital as well as the Medical Director of Cancer Program for Sinai Health in Toronto, Canada. She obtained her PhD in Medical Biophysics at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto and her Medical Degree from the University of Toronto. She is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and senior scientist for the same Clinical Research Group at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute for Sinai Health System in Toronto, Canada.

Dr Brezden-Masley is the founder of the COMET (Community Oncologists of Metropolitan Toronto) Clinical Trials Consortium, a web-based virtual network promoting cancer clinical trials throughout the Toronto region. She treats both breast and gastrointestinal (colorectal and gastric cancers) malignancies, which are her major areas of research interest. Her main area of clinical research is cardiotoxicity from cancer therapy and is currently the President of the Canadian Cardio-Oncology Network. She is also on the Board of Directors of ReThink Breast Cancer, a national advocacy and support network for young women with breast cancer and My Gut Feeling, a stomach cancer support network for patients, survivors, and caregivers.

Tulin Cil

Tulin Cil MD MEd FRCSC
Associate Member Institute of Medical Science University of Toronto
Staff Surgical Oncologist Princess Margaret Hospital /
University Health Network and Women’s College Hospital
Associate Professor Department of Surgery
Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Dr. Tulin Cil graduated from the University of Western Ontario medical school in 2000 and did her General Surgery training at the University of Toronto and UWO. She became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 2005. After completing her General Surgery training, she obtained a Master of Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in 2008. She completed a fellowship in breast surgical oncology at U of T during this period. Dr. Cil began her General Surgery staff appointment at University Health Network and Women’s College Hospital in 2008. Dr. Cil’s main clinical focus is breast surgical oncology including oncoplastic surgery. Her research interests are in breast surgery and patient reported outcomes, patient education and surgical education. She is affiliated with the Wilson Centre at UHN where her research interests are innovative teaching strategies and mechanisms of learning surgical skills. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. She has recently been appointed as the Gattuso Chair in Breast Surgical Oncology at UHN and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

Eileen Rakovitch

Eileen Rakovitch MD FRCPC
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Odette Cancer Centre
Staff Radiation Oncologist Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre
Campbell Chair in Breast Cancer Research
Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology
Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Dr. Rakovitch is a radiation oncologist with an active clinical practice and research program solely focused on breast cancer. She attended medical school and completed her residency training in Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto. She completed a two year research fellowship at the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University in New York City and then returned to Toronto to join the staff at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre where she remains until today.

She is a Professor and Scientist in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto and an Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. She is the L.C. Campbell Chair in Breast Cancer Research at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, the Head of the Breast program at Sunnybrook and is the Medical Director of the Louise Temerty Breast Cancer Centre. She is the co-chair of the Canadian Clinical Trials Group Breast Cancer Executive, which leads and contributes to clinical trials improving the treatment of breast cancer. She is dedicated to teaching students, residents and fellows across the educational spectrum.

The primary goal of her research program is to improve the care and outcomes of women with an early form of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).

Committee

Jean-François Boileau

Jean-François Boileau MD MSc FRCSC
Surgical Oncologist, Jewish General Hospital Segal Cancer Centre
Associate Professor Surgery and Oncology, McGill University
Director JGH Breast Clinical Trials Group

Dr Boileau is a surgical oncologist and clinician scientist at the Montreal Jewish General Segal Cancer Centre. He is assistant professor in the Department of Surgery and associate member of the Department of Oncology at McGill University. He has worked as staff surgeon at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Montreal (CHUM) and at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre in Toronto before transferring to his current position.

His research interests are in breast cancer and clinical trials. The main focus of his research aims at using primary systemic therapy, or neoadjuvant therapy, as a more efficient way to study the effects of treatments in women with breast cancer.

Dr Boileau is the principle investigator of the SN FNAC Trial, a Canadian multicenter study evaluating the accuracy of sentinel node biopsy in node positive breast cancer patients following neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Other research interests include the identification of better predictors of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and early detection of breast cancer.

Stephen K. L. Chia

Stephen K. L. Chia MD FRCPC
Medical Oncologist,
BCCA, Vancouver Clinic
Associate Professor of Medicine,
Department of Medicine,
University of British Columbia,
Chair British Columbia Breast Tumour Group
Vancouver, BC

Stephen K. Chia, M.D., F.R.C.P. (Canada) is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He also is a staff oncologist with the British Columbia Cancer Agency (BCCA), Vancouver, Canada. In addition, Dr. Chia serves as Chair for the British Columbia Breast Tumour Group and is physician coordinator for both the breast cancer and head and neck cancer clinical trials at the BCCA – Vancouver Cancer Centre. He currently sits on the NCIC Clinical Trials Committee Executive, NCIC CTG Breast Executive, NCIC CTG Breast Correlative Science Committee, as well as being a member of the ASCO Scientific Committee (2009-2012). He was a Breast Track chair (Triple Negative/Cytotoxic/Local) for the ASCO 2011 Annual Meeting. He is an active researcher in phase I-III trials in breast cancer, head and neck cancer and investigational new drugs. He has a real interest in neoadjuvant systemic therapy for breast cancer and drug development, as well as the field of translation research of predictive biomarkers/assays.

Dr. Chia has been widely published (over 70 peer reviewed publications) in international peer-reviewed journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Cell, Annals of Oncology and Clinical Cancer Research. Recently he has written the Commentaries in the Lancet and Lancet Oncology for the latest EBCTCG Overview (2011), NOAH study (2010) and the GEPARQUINTTO study (2012) respectively. An active researcher, he is currently carrying out clinical and translational studies in breast cancer with peer reviewed grant funded research from the National Cancer Institute of Canada, National Institute of Health (USA), Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance and Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation – British Columbia/Yukon Chapter.

He received his bachelor’s degree in Pharmacology from the University of British Columbia, where he also earned his medical degree in 1993. He obtained his Internal Medicine Fellowship and Medical Oncology Fellowship also from the University of British Columbia. Dr. Chia then completed post-fellowship training from 1999-2000 with the Dept. of Advanced Therapeutics – British Cancer Research Centre and at the Institute of Molecular Medicine with the University of Oxford.

Anne Koch

Anne Koch MD PhD FRCPC
Staff Radiation Oncologist, Radiation Medicine Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Affiliate Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, UHN
Leader, Breast Cancer Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, UHN
Co-Director, Strategic Training in Transdisciplinary Radiation Science for the 21st Century (STARS21) Assistant Professor Department of Radiation Oncology
Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Dr. Koch is a Radiation Oncologist and Leader of the Breast Cancer Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, in Toronto, Canada. She received her Medical Degree from the University of Toronto, and completed her specialty training in Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto. She is a Clinician-Investigator, Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto, and an Affiliate Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. She obtained her PhD in Molecular and Medical Genetics at the University of Toronto, and her Post-Doctoral Fellowship studies focused on DNA damage signalling and the cellular response to ionizing radiation-induced DNA damage. She is Co-Director of the national research training program Strategic Training in Transdisciplinary Radiation Science for the 21st Century (STARS21). Dr. Koch is a recipient of the Research Leadership Award in the Radiation Medicine Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. She has been nominated twice for the Gerald Kirsh Humanitarian Award at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

Amanda Roberts

Amanda Roberts MD MPH FRCSC
Breast Surgical Oncologist, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery
Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Dr. Amanda Roberts is a fellowship-trained Breast Surgical Oncologist. She completed her Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship at the University of Toronto followed by a Clinical Research fellowship examining population-based healthcare utilization after breast cancer surgery. Her fellowship was supported by a Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation salary grant and a health research grant from the Physicians Services Incorporated Foundation. Dr. Roberts completed her medical degree at McMaster Medical School and her general surgery residency at the University of Toronto. During her residency, she attended the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and obtained a Masters in Public Health with a focus on Health Leadership and Management. Dr. Roberts clinical and research interests focus on fostering collaborative care, assessing the delivery of breast cancer care and evaluating breast cancer surgery outcomes on a population level.

Guest Faculty

Mark Basik

Mark Basik MDCM, FRCSC
Herbert Black Professor of Surgical Oncology, McGill University
Senior Investigator, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research
Attending Surgical Oncologist, Jewish General Hospital
Montreal, QC

Dr. Mark Basik was born in Montreal, graduated in medicine from McGill University, completed a general Surgery Residency at the Université de Montreal, followed by a fellowship in Surgical Oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. He was a visiting investigator at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. He returned to Montreal in 2003, where he is now practicing breast cancer surgery at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, QC, and he is the Herbert Black professor of Surgical Oncology at McGill University. He recently stepped down as co-chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Breast Oncology Local Disease Task Force and is a member of the Breast Cancer Steering Committee of the NCI as well as the lead investigator of several clinical trials, including the NRG BR005, a phase II study to evaluate the accuracy of residual tumor biopsies after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer, and TRICIA, a trial to evaluate the predictive and prognostic value of ctDNA measurements after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for triple negative breast cancer. His basic research interests include understanding the causes of resistance to therapy in breast cancer as well as developing new diagnostic blood tests for breast cancer using circulating tumor DNA.

MJ Decoteau

MJ DeCoteau
Founder and Executive Director
Rethink Breast Cancer

MJ is the Founder + Executive Director at Rethink Breast Cancer where she is responsible for the overall direction, management, fundraising strategy and creative vision of an increasingly bigger and bolder Rethink. While she’s won numerous “trailblazer” awards for her work at Rethink and is known for modernizing the breast cancer campaign, MJ also has a cat-loving, Jane Austen-reading, ’40s musical-watching side. She loves winter snuggled up at home with her husband and daughter, but always the adventurer, has an Arctic expedition on her bucket list.

Susan Dent

Susan Dent MD FRCPC
Head of Department, Medical Oncology
National Cancer Center Singapore

Dr. Dent attended McMaster University Medical School in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and completed her residency training in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at the Ottawa Hospital, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She subsequently completed a post graduate research fellowship in clinical trials at the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) in Kingston, Ontario, and was appointed as a staff medical oncologist at the Northwestern Ontario Cancer Center in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

In 2001, Dr. Dent returned to Ottawa, where she specialized in the treatment of breast cancer. In 2008, Dr. Dent, working with her cardiology colleagues, established a multidisciplinary cardio-oncology clinic in Ottawa; the first of its kind in Canada. In 2011, she founded the Canadian Cardiac Oncology Network (CONN), a not-for-profit organization devoted to optimization of cancer care for patients without compromising cardiovascular health. (www.cardiaconcology.ca). In 2015, Dr. Dent launched the Global Cardio-Oncology Summit (GCOS), an annual meeting which now attracts oncologists, cardiologists, and allied health care providers from more than 23 countries.

Dr. Dent is recognized as a global leader in cardio-oncology. She has travelled extensively around the world sharing her knowledge and expertise on the potential impact of cancer treatment on cardiovascular health. She has published extensively in the area and has co-authored a number of position statements and clinical practice guidelines. She continues to work and build relationships with global organizations interested in cardio-oncology including: European Society of Cardio-oncology, American College of Cardiology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Dent currently serves as an Executive Officer of the International Cardio-Oncology society (ICOS), an organization dedicated to bringing cardiologists, oncologists, and allied health care providers together, to improve the clinical care of patients and save lives.

In September 2018, Dr. Dent accepted a staff position in medical oncology at Duke University, where she will continue her efforts in promoting clinical care, education and research in cardio-oncology.

Rebecca Dent

Rebecca Dent MSc MD FRCP
Head of Department, Medical Oncology
National Cancer Center Singapore

Professor Dent’s primary research interest is in the field of breast cancer, with a focus on locally advanced breast cancer and triple negative/basal-like breast cancers. She has served as Chair of the locally advanced breast cancer program and Head, Breast Cancer Clinical Trials at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Center in Toronto, Ontario Canada from 2008-2011. They were actively developing novel therapies and imaging strategies for these high risk patients and up to 75% of their locally advanced breast cancer patients were enrolled onto one or more trials. Recognized as a national leader in triple negative breast cancers with several publications in this area with over 4,000 citations including three citations in the New England Journal of Medicine, she has been invited to speak about her research at major cancer centers in Canada, US, Asia and Europe.

Since beginning her position in February 2011 as a consultant and now senior consultant at the National Cancer Center in Singapore, she has founded and co-chaired the 5th Asia Pacific Breast Cancer Summit. This is a multidisciplinary meeting for the treatment of breast cancer in which are able to attract almost 400 attendees from over 25 countries in the region and globally. She serves on a number of internal steering committees for clinical trials for breast cancer as well as the principal investigator for trials investigating novel therapies for patients with triple negative breast cancer. Finally she serves on a number of prominent international committees such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Scientific Committee (ER/HER2 track) and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Most recently, she was the only ex-US participant in the ASCO Leadership Development Program.

Cristiano Ferrario

Cristiano Ferrario MD
Assistant Professor
Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
McGill University

Dr. Ferrario received his MD degree in 2001 and his Specialty Certificate in Medical Oncology in 2005, both from Milan University in Italy. He then moved to Montreal to work as a visiting scientist in basic research at the Lady Davis Institute for two years.

In 2007, he was awarded the Terry Fox Foundation Post MD Research Fellowship Award and then started on a clinical fellowship program for four years in the Oncology Department of McGill University, training in clinical research in breast cancer, hepatobiliary and prostate cancers.

In 2011, he moved back to Italy where he worked for two years as a medical oncologist at the “IRST” in Meldola, focusing on breast cancer and on the treatment of refractory testicular cancer with high-dose chemotherapy.

In 2012, he accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Oncology Department of McGill University and Medical Oncologist at the Segal Cancer Centre (Jewish General Hospital), where he is currently working. He treats breast and urological cancers and is particularly dedicated to clinical research, being currently involved in several phase 1-3 clinical trials.

In 2012, he was the recipient of the Kate McGarrigle Fellowship Award. In 2014, the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University awarded him with the Introduction to Clinical Medicine Oncology Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Karen Gelmon

Karen Gelmon MD FRCPC
Professor, Department of Medical Oncology
BC Cancer Agency Vancouver, Ctr.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada

Dr. Gelmon is a Professor of Medicine at the UBC and a Medical Oncologist at the BCCA, combining clinical and translational research. She is currently Chair of the UBC/BCC Research Ethics Board. She was elected as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. She is on the Medical Advisory Board of the Canadian Breast Cancer Network (CBCN). She has been academic Head of the UBC Division of Medical Oncology, Co Chair of the Breast Site Committee for the Canadian Clinical Trials Group (CCTG) and Chair of the Investigational New Drug Committee for that cooperative group. She has been. a member of the NCI Breast Steering Committee and of the BIG (Breast International Group) Executive Board Group as well as a Komen scholar and member of the Scientific Advisory Council for Komen. She was Co Chair of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) Scientific Advisory Board. She is an active teacher interested in education of health care professionals and the public and has published extensively with over 250 publications. She is active in her community and the recipient of a number of awards including the YWCA Woman of Distinction award.

John Hilton

John Hilton MD FRCPC
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
University of Ottawa
Division of Medical Oncology

Shelley Hwang

E. Shelley Hwang MD MPH
Mary and Deryl Hart Distinguished Professor of Surgery
Vice Chair of Research, Department of Surgery
Professor, Department of Radiology
Co-Leader, Women’s Cancer Program Duke Cancer Institute

Dr. Hwang has been a faculty member of Duke University since 2011, serving as the Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Surgery since 2015 and the Mary and Deryl Hart Professor of Surgery and Co-Leader Women’s Cancer Program at the Duke Cancer Institute since 2018. Prior to being recruited to Duke, Dr. Hwang was a member of the faculty of the Department of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was Professor of Surgery, Chief of Breast Surgical Oncology, and Surgeon-in-Chief of the UCSF Cancer Center.

Dr. Hwang’s research focuses on breast cancer prevention; identifying less invasive treatments for early stage breast cancers including previnvasive cancer (DCIS); and understanding the genetic and stromal determinants of cancer progression. She also studies novel immune approaches to breast cancer treatment.

Dr. Hwang is active on the national stage, serving as a member of the National Cancer Institute Breast Cancer Steering Committee, National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines Committees, and Co-Chair of the Human Tumor Atlas Network. In addition, she has participated in national and international panels and consortia to establish guidelines for DCIS, node-positive breast cancer, neoadjuvant therapy, and clinical trials endpoints for breast cancer. In 2016, she was honored as a Time 100 recipient for her innovative work in early stage breast cancer.

Dr. Hwang conducts clinical research and runs a basic science research lab focused on predictors of invasion in breast precancers. Her research is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Cancer Institute, the Department of Defense, the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), the Breast Cancer Research Fund and others; Dr. Hwang was the top surgeon in NIH funding in 2018. She is principal investigator of three active NIH-funded grants, including the Pre-Cancer Atlas Research Centers (U2C) project, and the PCORI COMET trial, a multicenter study of active surveillance versus usual care for low-risk DCIS being conducted at over 80 study sites.

Dr. Hwang earned her medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and completed her surgical residency at New York Hospital/Cornell University. She pursued a fellowship in Breast Surgical Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a General Surgical Oncology fellowship at Singapore General Hospital. In addition, Dr. Hwang earned a master’s in public health from the University of California, Berkley.

Dr. Hwang is the author of more than 250 peer-reviewed journal articles and 13 book chapters, and serves on the editorial boards of Breast Diseases, Annals of Surgery, and Annals of Surgical Oncology.

Terry Mamounas

Terry P. Mamounas MD MPH
Medical Director, Comprehensive Breast Program
Orlando Health Cancer Institute

Terry Mamounas, MD, MPH, FACS, received his medical degree from the University of Athens Medical School in Athens, Greece, in 1983 and a Masters of Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh in 1989. He completed his general surgery residency at McKeesport Hospital in Pennsylvania.

He then completed a clinical oncology research fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh and a surgical oncology fellowship at the Department of Surgical Oncology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute in New York. He is currently the Medical Director or the Comprehensive Breast Program.

Dr. Mamounas has authored and coauthored more than 300 abstracts, peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and has given numerous lectures at national and international meetings. As part of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project, his clinical research has been funded over the past 20 years by several National Cancer Institute grants and more recently by a Komen for the Cure grant.

He has served on the editorial boards of several oncology journals and is a past associate editor of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. He has received several awards and distinctions and has been listed in The Best Doctors in America consistently since 2001. He is considered one of the nation’s best cancer physicians.

Dr. Mamounas holds memberships in several professional societies, including the American College of Surgeons, the Society of Surgical Oncology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

David Palma

David Palma MD PhD FRCPC
Professor, Western University
Clinician Scientist, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
Radiation Oncologist, London Health Sciences Centre

Dr. David Palma, MD, PhD is a Professor and Radiation Oncologist at Western University in London, Canada. He holds an MD from the University of Western Ontario, a Master’s Degree in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a PhD from the VU University in Amsterdam. He has led several international randomized trials in radiation oncology, and he is the chair of the Canadian Pulmonary Radiotherapy Investigators (CAPRI) group. He is the author of the bestselling book Taking Charge of Cancer: What You Need to Know to Get the Best Treatment.

Lashan Peiris

Lashan Peiris MD MBBS (Lon) BSc (Lon) FRCS Gen Surg (Lon)
Oncoplastic and Reconstructive Breast
and General Surgeon
Assistant Professor of General Surgery
University of Alberta
Misericordia Hospital
Edmonton, Alberta

May Lynn Quan

May Lynn Quan MD BSc MSc FRCSC
Professor of Surgery, Oncology & Community Health Sciences,University of Calgary
Medical Director, Calgary Breast Health Program
Scientific Director, Strategies for Precision Health in Breast Cancer (SPHERE)

Dr. May Lynn Quan is a breast surgical oncologist and health services researcher focusing on quality and delivery of cancer care. She is an associate professor in the Department of Surgery and Oncology, University of Calgary, and is the interim medical director and surgical lead of the Calgary Breast Health Program.

Dr. May Lynn Quan has expertise in large cohort and database studies using cancer registries and administrative dataset linkages at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Ontario and the Alberta Cancer Registry in Alberta. Having practiced in Ontario at Sunnybrook and now currently in Calgary, Dr. Quan has been a key member in both provincial tumour group executives and guideline development groups.

Christine-Simmons

Christine Simmons MD MSc FRCPC
Co-chair, BC Cancer Summit
Medical Oncologist, BC Cancer
Program Director, Medical Oncology Training Program
Clinical Associate Professor, UBC Faculty of Medicine

Dr. Christine Simmons is a Medical Oncologist at the BCCA Vancouver and Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. She completed her residency training in Toronto, and completed a fellowship at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. She also completed a Master’s in Clinical Epidemiology at University of Toronto. She is currently the Chair of Sarcoma Systemic Program for BCCA. She is the former chair of the Locally Advanced Breast Cancer National Consensus group and still plays a key role in that organisation. Her academic interests span both teaching and research; she has held several leadership roles in the Undergraduate Medical Program at UBC in the areas of clinical skills and oncology education, and is the incoming program director for postgraduate medical oncology training program effective July 1, 2021. Her research interests are in the areas of health services research in breast cancer and sarcoma. She recently founded the Sarcoma Outcomes Unit at the BC Cancer Agency, and is Founder and Chair of the not for profit organisations, Women in Cancer and All in Cancer.

Alastair Thompson

Alastair M. Thompson ALCM BSc(Hons) MBChB MD FRCSEd(Gen) FACS
Olga Keith Wiess Chair of Surgery
Co-Director, Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center
Co-Associate Director for Clinical Research
Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Section Chief, Breast Surgery
Division of Surgical Oncology
Baylor College of Medicine
Honorary Professor of Surgical Oncology, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK
Visiting Professor of Surgery, Imperial College, London, UK

Professor Alastair Thompson trained and practiced as a clinician-scientist focused on multidisciplinary patient care alongside translational “bench to bedside” studies and innovative clinical trials in cancer. He initiated and led a successful breast cancer laboratory program and provided leadership for a cancer center in Dundee, United Kingdom (UK). He chaired the UK national breast cancer trials portfolio of 120 studies led the national breast cancer tissue bank and engaged in a range of pivotal roles in key drug, radiation therapy and surgical trials involving the UK, Europe, the United States and Australia. Since moving to the US in 2014, he has focused on improving treatment for breast cancer patients with innovative surgical techniques and clinical trials.

Thompson is an active member of SSO, ASBrS, ASCO and AACR. With successful peer reviewed funding from US government and international charitable sources spanning laboratory to clinical studies, successful supervision of 24 postgraduate students to date and over 400 publications in the highest impact factor clinical and scientific journals. His key mission remains improving care for those with cancer.

Julia White

Julia R. White MD
Professor of Radiation Oncology
Ohio State University, Columbus

I am a breast cancer physician and radiation oncologist who specializes in designing targeted radiation treatment plans for women with breast cancer. I was named to the Castle Connolly list of “Regional Top Doctors” from 2011-2019 and hold the Klotz Chair in Cancer Research. As a physician, my goal is to deliver radiation therapy that is personalized for each patient — an approach that can lead to improved survival for women with breast cancer. When I began my career 20 years ago, we treated all women with breast cancer the same way. Now we know that there are no routine breast cancers and that there is not just one way to prevent, detect and treat breast cancer. There are many types of breast cancer, and each woman is an individual, which means it is important to provide a targeted treatment plan for each patient. Throughout my career I have served as the principal investigator on important clinical studies that have helped establish today’s standard of care for treating breast cancer patients. As a member of the Translational Therapeutics Program at the OSUCCC – James, my research focuses on developing and implementing new technologies, such as prone, conformal, partial breast and image-guided therapies, to provide radiation technology and tools that are capable of delivering a more precise dosage of radiation without harming healthy tissue or organs. Recently, I was part of the first National Cancer Institute clinical trial using stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in treating multiple metastases. This trial can inform future trial designs and allow immediate clinical adoption of SBRT for multiple metastases. I have published my work extensively in the top research journals in my field, including New England Journal of Medicine, Practical Radiation Oncology, Cancer and Journal of Clinical Oncology. I am often asked to present my work at scientific meetings, and I split my time between patients, research, teaching and numerous leadership positions, both at The Ohio State University and nationally. My focus on personalized treatments has led to some prominence in the field as a national leader in radiation oncology. Since 2007, I have chaired the Breast Cancer Committee for the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG). This group receives National Cancer Institute funding to conduct clinical trials, so in this role, I oversee all of the breast radiation clinical trials. Nearly 7,000 breast cancer patients will be enrolled in clinical trials under my oversight.

University of Toronto Faculty

David Cescon

David Cescon MD PhD FRCPC
Medical Oncologist and Clinician Scientist
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre/UHN
Assistant Professor,
Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology
Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

David Cescon is a breast Medical Oncologist and Clinician Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. His laboratory work is focussed on the application of cell line and patient-derived breast cancer models for the evaluation of novel therapies, and he is part of several large multidisciplinary projects including the Stand up to Cancer Canada/CBCF Breast Cancer Dream Team and the Terry Fox Triple Negative Breast Cancer Program Project. His clinical focus is triple negative breast cancer and early phase trials, and he leads several translational research initiatives including the REFLECT study through the Princess Margaret Cancer Genomics Program.

Andrea Covelli

Andrea Covelli MD PhD FRCSC
Surgical Oncology – Breast & Melanoma, Mount Sinai Hospital
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery
Division of General Surgery
Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Dr. Andrea Covelli is a surgical oncologist in the Division of General Surgery, Mount Sinai Hospital and as an Assistant Professor and Surgeon-Investigator at the University of Toronto. She received her Medical Degree from the University of Western Ontario, and obtained both her residency training in General Surgery and her General Surgical Oncology fellowship training at the University of Toronto. Dr. Covelli is also an alumna of the Surgeon-Scientist and Clinician Investigator Program having completed her PhD in Clinical Epidemiology at the Institute of Health Management, Policy and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Covelli’s clinical focus is the surgical management of complex skin malignancies and breast disease with a special interest in rare breast malignancies, including breast sarcomas. .Her academic research is in the area of qualitative methodology. Her research interests include improving patient and clinical care outcomes and addressing health inequities for under-represented patient populations.

Kelly Metcalfe

Kelly Metcalfe RN PhD FAAN FCAHS
Professor, Associate Dean of Research
Bloomberg Professor of Cancer Genetics
University of Toronto

Dr. Kelly Metcalfe is a Professor in the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgery, at the University of Toronto and a Senior Scientist at the Women’s College Research Institute. She currently holds the Bloomberg Professorship in Cancer Genetics and is the Associate Dean of Research. Dr. Metcalfe received her BScN in 1996 from the University of Western Ontario, and her PhD in 2002 from the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. Dr. Metcalfe’s research focuses on the prevention and treatment of breast cancer in high risk women, most specifically those with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. She has led international studies resulting in seminal research papers on the topic of treatment of BRCA-associated breast cancer. Dr. Metcalfe is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the American Academy of Nursing and is a Member of the New College of Scholars in the Royal Society of Canada.

Camilla Wong

Camilla Wong MD FRCPC MHSc
Geriatrician, St. Michael’s Hospital
Investigator, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Camilla Wong is a Geriatrician at St. Michael’s Hospital, an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and a Project Investigator at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute. Her clinical and research interests include the implementation and evaluation of acute care models for the frail elderly. Her publications have appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), and the Annals of Surgery

Ellen Warner

Ellen Warner MD MSc FRCPC FACP
Division of Medical Oncology,
Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre,
Director, PYNK: Breast Cancer Program for Young Women
Professor, Department of Medicine
Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Dr. Ellen Warner is a medical oncologist at the Odette Cancer Centre of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She also holds a Masters degree in clinical epidemiology. Her clinical practice and research are entirely devoted to the management of women living with breast cancer or at high risk for developing the disease. Her main research interests are identification and screening of high risk women, management of breast cancer in very young women, and lifestyle factors that affect breast cancer recurrence and/or quality of life. Dr. Warner’s research led to the establishment of the Ontario Breast Screening Program’s High Risk program that offers annual MRI and mammography to women across Ontario at very high risk for developing breast cancer. She is also founder and director of Sunnybrook’s PYNK: Breast Cancer Program for Young – a clinical, research and educational program for women diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40 or younger.