Michael Alvarado, M.D. is a Professor of Surgery and member of the breast care and melanoma programs. Just recently, he was appointed Accountable Care Medical Director. Dr. Alvarado received his undergraduate degree from Arizona State University, his master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Arizona and his medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School.
After completing his residency at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, he completed his surgical oncology fellowship at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute at the University of South Florida.
Dr. Alvarado plays an integral role in the multidisciplinary breast care team at the Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center in the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is also Director of the Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship Program.
William Audeh, MD, MS, Chief Medical Officer at Agendia, is a medical oncologist specializing in breast cancer and cancer genomics, with over 30 years of experience as a clinician and clinical researcher at the Cedars‐Sinai Cancer Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Audeh completed his Internal Medicine training and Medical Oncology Fellowship at the Stanford University Medical Center in California, and holds a master’s degree in Genetics from the University of Minnesota.
He is a member of the American Association of Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American Society of Human Genetics.
Professor John Benson is a Consultant Breast Surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, Affiliated Assistant Professor, University of Cambridge and Visiting Professor, School of Medicine, Anglia Ruskin University. He has previously been actively involved with the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium as a member of the Planning Committee and Career Development Forum (2011–2015). He has published more than 160 papers (including 30 in the Lancet/Lancet Oncology) and written/edited 8 books. He is currently ranked in the top 0.076% of breast cancer experts worldwide (Expertscape). He was elected Honorary Secretary of the Association of Breast Surgery in 2023.
John Benson 1st March 2024
James Blackwood is an independent healthcare augmented intelligence (AI) expert who has delivered over 65 AI projects, from initial research concept to clinical adoption at scale, in areas such as population health, primary care, mental health, radiology (including breast cancer screening), pathology (including breast cancer histology) and hospital operations management.
He is currently the AI Lead for NHS Forth Valley, Chief Technology Officer for several healthcare startups, consultant, speaker and a course co-lead for AI in healthcare at the University of Edinburgh. He is Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Leader 2024.
Paula Briggs is a Consultant in Sexual and Reproductive Health based at Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust.
She is Immediate Past Chair of the British Menopause Society.
Paula qualified from University of Glasgow in 1987.
She trained as a GP before moving to Liverpool in 1993 and worked in General Practice and Sexual Health until 2012.
She is now devoted to delivery of women’s health care, research and education. She is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool. Her main interest is menopause management with a particular interest in urogenital atrophy.
She has co-edited 3 books, (one second edition), co-written an undergraduate textbook in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, a revision guide for MFSRH and a book specifically for men about female hormones. She has also written a patient booklet on menopause (second edition). She co-authored a myth busting book on contraception for the lay public and is working on a similar menopause patient book with colleagues currently. She also has 2 new patient booklets, one co-authored on sexual and reproductive health after gynaecological cancer and the other on urogenital atrophy.
She is married with four children and enjoys golf, reading and cooking.
Mr Henry J Cain MBChB (hons) FRCS, MD
Henry Cain qualified in 2001 from Leicester Medical School. Following the award of MD in breast cancer signalling pathways and higher surgical training in Newcastle upon Tyne he spent a year as the Oncoplastic Fellow at the Canniesburn Unit in Glasgow. He was appointed a Consultant Oncoplastic Surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary Newcastle upon Tyne in 2013. Driving improvements in surgical care he has led the introduction of Radioactive Seed Localisation of impalpable breast cancer and post neo-adjuvant chemotherapy I125 seed Targeted Axillary Dissection to the UK. With a significant recruitment into national trials he is the surgical lead Co-Investigator for the NOSTRA trial and the Chief Investigator for the PRE-DX national RCT.
Dr. Julia Camps Herrero is a breast radiologist and also the Corporate Head of Breast Health in Ribera Salud Hospitals (Spain). Since 1999 she is an active researcher in multimodality breast radiology, with a special interest in contrast imaging (MRI and CEM). Dr. Camps Herrero is an active speaker in Latin America and Europe, where she has been invited in more than 400 presentations. She is the author of 23 papers, 7 book chapters and 75 scientific posters and oral presentations. She has been the Breast section editor for EURORAD 2007-2017, chairman of the ECR 2012 Breast Subcommittee and of the Spanish Senology Congress in 2015, member of the Programme Planning Committee for ECR 2015, 2016 and 2022. Presently, she is the Vice-president of SEDIM (Spanish Breast Imaging Society) and an ex-President of the European Society of Breast Imaging (EUSOBI).
Miss Leena Chagla is the President of the Association of Breast Surgery and the past President of the Liverpool and Northwest Society of Surgeons. She heads the breast unit at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals which is actively involved in clinical innovation and trials. She continues to publish regularly in peer reviewed journals.
Leena qualified from Grant Medical College, Mumbai, with a gold medal in Surgery. Whilst in India, she trained at the Sir JJ Hospital and at the Tata Memorial Cancer Centre. Her passion for surgical oncology developed in those formative years.
She is a popular speaker both nationally and internationally and is involved in the development of guidelines for the management of breast cancer. She is passionate about MDT working and the welfare of trainees. She launched the Anti-bullying Campaign (#CoreItOut) for ABS in alliance with RCSEd. She represented ABS on the pathology Big 18 and the organising committee of Symposia Mammographicum.
Leena was instrumental in setting up the International Forum at ABS with a view to sharing good practice globally. She is committed to improving and standardising Breast cancer care through education and training. She is an Educational Supervisor for the National Oncoplastic Fellow for the last 20 years and she has trained international trainees from LMICs on the MTI scheme since 2018. She represented Liverpool and Northern Counties in water-polo, and she enjoys all sport.
Krishna Clough
Dr CLOUGH is a leader in Oncoplastic Breast Surgery, having been instrumental in its creation and subsequently developing the classification of oncoplastic surgery techniques which is considered a reference paper in this field. He spent more than 15 years in the French public system, and was the Chief of Surgery at the Institut Curie in 1996 at the age of 38. In 2004, Dr CLOUGH left the Institut Curie to create the Paris Breast Centre, France’s first Breast Centre, which now hosts 6 breast surgeons and a multidisciplinary team of 20 physicians dedicated to the care of women with breast cancer, but also benign breast disease, and cosmetic breast surgery. The Paris Breast Centre is one of the leading institutions in France for treatment and education with widely reputable international fellowships for young surgeons early on in their career and experienced surgeons from all over the world wishing to undertake oncoplastic training.
Dr CLOUGH is a dually qualified surgical oncologist and a plastic surgeon, having specialised early in breast surgery. He has focused on offering patients the benefits of a multidisciplinary approach whilst limiting the side effects of each of the treatments applied. His clinical research aims at developing a global surgical expertise for breast surgery, from non-palpable breast cancer to all types of breast reconstruction, including all possible surgical procedures for diagnosis, treatment and reconstructive surgery of the breast. In the late 1980’s Dr CLOUGH developed the concept of oncoplastic surgery for breast conservation, integrating plastic surgery techniques at the time of the tumour resection, in order to extend breast conservation possibilities and reduce postoperative sequelae. He published the first papers on oncoplastic surgery techniques and results in the early 1990’s, demonstrating that oncoplastic procedures could extend the scope of breast surgery, which was initially limited to wide local excision or mastectomy. Fully integrated into a multidisciplinary treatment, the concept of oncoplastic surgery is now spreading worldwide in the field of breast oncology, and is considered as one of the main recent advances in breast cancer surgery.
Dr CLOUGH has published over 160 articles in international peer reviewed journals and continues his clinical research in the busiest private practice in France. He has been invited to present in all major international conferences and represented France in numerous international working groups (consensus conferences), whose works have been the object of reference publications. Dr CLOUGH was awarded the Umberto Veronesi European Institute of Oncology award in 2015, for his contribution to breast cancer treatment and education. He is currently the Vice President of the French Society of Senology.
Dr John Conibear graduated from the University Hospital of Wales in 2001 and completed his post-graduate general medical training in The Barts and The London Training rotation in 2006.
Before gaining his substantive post as a consultant clinical oncologist in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in 2014, he completed a 2-year fellowship with the NCRI Radiotherapy Trials Quality Assurance Group in Mount Vernon Hospital. During his fellowship he conducted research into techniques to improve clinician target outlining during radiotherapy planning and was subsequently awarded a MD(Res) from UCL in 2018.
Dr Conibear is currently the clinical director for thoracic and neuro-oncology in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and, the oncology clinical lead for the National Lung Cancer Audit (NLCA).
Dr Conibear specialises in all the non-surgical treatments for both breast and lung cancers and has a specialist interest in stereotactic radiotherapy. He is trained in using the ViewRay MRIdian MRI-guided linac, Accuray Cyberknife and Leksell Icon Gamma Knife platforms for delivering both intra- and extra-cranial stereotactic radiotherapy.