Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Course Director

Professor Benson is a Consultant Breast Surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, Associate Lecturer, University of Cambridge and Visiting Professor, School of Medicine, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. He has published widely in the field of breast diseases with authorship of more than 160 papers and has written/edited 7 books on breast cancer/reconstructive surgery (ranked in the top 0.084% of the world’s breast cancer experts). He is a former member of the Planning Committee for the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (2013 – 2015) and was a Trustee/member of the Executive Board of ABS until demitting from office in 2021.

University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

Course Director

Ramsey Cutress is Professor of Breast Surgery and Consultant Surgeon at the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton. Ramsey is topic advisor for the NICE Early and Locally Advanced Breast Cancer Guideline (NG101) and was a member of the writing group for the ABS BAPRAS Oncoplastic Breast Reconstruction Guidelines and is co-director of the ABS Advanced Skills in Breast Disease Management Course. His clinical research interests include breast cancer in young women as a member of the POSH study research team and the investigation of patient and host determinants of breast cancer outcomes including genetic predisposition, immunological and lifestyle factors. He is currently involved in various national research studies and clinical trials including the EndoNET HTA funded trail of neo-adjuvant endocrine therapy. He is breast sub-specialty editor for the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and a member of the CPS committee of ABS.

University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton

Faculty

Ellen Copson is Professor of Medical Oncology and Honorary Medical Oncology Consultant at the University of Southampton where she specialises in the treatment of early and advanced breast cancer.
Ellen trained in medical oncology in London and Southampton, receiving her CCT in 2009. Following a PhD studying heritable breast cancer, Ellen developed a particular interest in genomic and nutritional factors which influence breast cancer outcomes. She is lead oncologist of the POSH UK cohort study of young breast cancer patients and of the CANDO3 study of body composition and chemotherapy toxicity. Ellen is principle investigator for a number of observational and interventional clinical trials in early and advanced breast cancer and clinical advisor to several cancer survivorship studies. Ellen is chair of the World Cancer Research Fund Global Cancer Survivorship expert panel and co-chair of the UK Breast Cancer Studies Group working group on lifestyle interventions.  Ellen founded the national Breast Cancer Trainees Research Collaborative Group  and has been a member of the UKBCG executive committee since 2023.

Ellen has been co-chair of the Wessex Molecular Tumour Board since 2017 and cancer lead of the Central and South Central Genomic Laboratory Hub since  2021. She is oncology lead for Health Education England’s “GeNotes” genomics information resource and is involved in a number of other national educational initiatives in cancer genomics. Locally, Ellen is oncology lead for the University of Southampton medical degree course.

James Paget Healthcare NHS Trust

Faculty

Ms Downey qualified from Nottingham University in the last century and she undertook SHO training in Bristol, Research in Breast Cancer Oncology in Manchester and Registrar training in Yorkshire. Her first consultant post in Bradford for 4 years and moved to East Anglia in 2005. Sarah's first involvement in RCS was examiner for MRCS at time OSCE introduced. Acted on committee and then Chair of Court of Examiners for RCS England. Part of training committee since came to East Anglia in 2005. Undertook Divisional Director role in own hospital for 5 years – opened new daycase unit. Acted as regional Breast Screening QA Surgeon for 6 years. Joined SAC in 2015 and became regional TPD in 2018. Currently Chair of General Surgery SAC.  Undergraduate PBL tutor and online tutor for oncoplastic MS. Director of Screening for own Trust and also Clinical Appraisal Lead. Former TIG Chair and faculty on Advanced Breast Cancer Course. Currently President of ABS.

Castle Hill Hospital , Hull

Faculty

Liverpool University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Faculty

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Faculty

Dr Victoria Harmer qualified with an award for distinction in practice and is Consultant Nurse and lead nurse for the breast screening and symptomatic services at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. She acts as Key Worker to people with breast cancer, and has published widely, as well as editing the book ‘Breast Cancer Nursing Care and Management’. She has acted as medical adviser for radio, television and film and involved in many research trial e.g. OPTIMA. She has received Nursing Times Cancer Nursing award and was a finalist for the Public Health category in 2022. She has worked with Marks and Spencer designing swimwear for the post mastectomy body, is Trustee for Against Breast Cancer charity, on the Medical Advisory Board for CoppaFeel!, deputy Chair for Europa Donna UK and a member of the ABS International Forum. Dr Harmer has a degree in nursing from Kings College, an MBA from Westminster Business School, a doctorate from Kings and is an Associateship of Kings College.

Frimley Park Hospital

Faculty

Isabella has been a Consultant Oncoplastic Surgeon at Frimley Health NHS Trust since 2009, where she is the Clinical Lead for Frimley Park Breast Unit and The Parapet Unit in Windsor. She is passionate and dedicated in the training of oncoplastic breast surgery where she now mentors three Oncoplastic Fellows across the Trust. She was recently appointed Communications Ordinary Trustee to the ABS and she currently serves as Director of Course Development. Isabella has taught on the UEA Masters in Breast Oncoplastic Surgery for 13 years and has been the ABS Yearbook Editor since 2021. Her special interests include revisional surgery and using Lean methodology to improve efficiencies and surgical outcomes.

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Faculty

Daniel is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Breast Surgery working in the Departments of BioSurgery and Surgical Technology, the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery and the Cancer Research UK Centre at Imperial College London. Daniel is Co-PI on the CRUK funded “REI-EXCISE” trial which seeks to validate a mass-spectrometry based intelligent knife or “iKnife” as an immediate margin detection system to improve the precision of breast conserving surgery, reduce re-operative intervention, and enhance
quality of life. He leads a UK wide team working on a CRUK-EPSRC funded project “MAMMOBOT” to design a flexible growing ductoscopic robot for early breast cancer detection. Daniel Co-Chairs the “Precision Therapy” theme of Imperial’s CRUK Centre and represents cancer surgery for the Imperial ECMC. He has published over 150 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals on subjects relating to the application of surgical technologies, sensing and robotics to improve cancer surgery. His teams research has won national and international recognition, including the Hounsfield Prize, British Journal of Surgery Prize (ABS), Patey Prize (SARS), Sir Pat Forrest Award (BBG), Parasuraman Award, Athanasiou Medal (ABME), and the young scientist award nomination at MICCAI. He has attracted funding from Industry (Waters Corp, Hitachi Medical Corp), the Academy of Medical Sciences and Wellcome Trust, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Association of Breast Surgery, Cancer Research UK, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

Daniel won the Ronald Raven Prize Travelling Fellowship to learn from experts in Breast Cancer and Reconstructive Surgery at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the forefront Cancer Center in USA, and more recently the Price Thomas Fellowship of the Travelling Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. More recently he won the highly prestigious James IV Travelling Association of Surgeons. He has delivered a number of key-note lectures including “McGuire Lecture in Surgical Oncology”(Queens University, Kingston, Canada).

Gartnavel General Hospital

Faculty

Mr James Mansell is a Consultant Breast Surgeon and works as an NHS consultant at  in Glasgow. Working alongside his Consultant Breast Radiology colleagues any necessary breast imaging (mammography/ultrasound) and biopsy (tissue sampling) can be performed during your visit to his clinic.

University Hospital Southampton

Faculty

University of Southampton

Faculty

Constantinos Savva is an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Medical Oncology at the University of Southampton with a special interest in immuno-oncology, body composition and metabolic interventions. He graduated from the School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Greece in 2010. During his medical studies his was awarded a State Scholarship Foundation for outstanding academic records. In 2011, he successfully completed his MSc in Epidemiology offered by the University of London. From 2011 to 2015,he underwent Foundation and Core Medical training in Mersey and East of England deaneries, respectively. In 2015, he became a member of the Royal College of Physicians.
Subsequently, he was awarded an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship at the University of Nottingham where he consolidated my skills in breast cancer research. He also obtained a National Training Number in Medical Oncology which has been transferred to Wessex Deanery. In parallel, he completed a PGDip in Oncology and a PGCert in Clinical Bioinformatics. He was awarded his PhD in breast cancer immunology in November 2022.

University of Cambridge

Faculty

University Hospital Southampton

Faculty

Ms Alison Luther. Ms Luther is a consultant who specialises in breast surgery. BM FRCS MS. Training and education.

Ninewells Hospital, Scotland

Faculty

Mr Vassilis Pitsinis is a Consultant Breast Surgeon and Clinical Lead for Breast Surgery in NHS Tayside (Ninewells Hospital and Medical School) with an interest in Oncoplastic Surgery. He is also an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer in the University of Dundee Medical School.
His current research among other projects involves into breast cancer is focused on in a novel technique of replacing radioisotope and blue dye with fluorescence as localization for sentinel lymph node biopsy in early breast cancer. 
He has been elected as a Tayside Academic Health Science Partnership Clinical Fellow.  
He is the British Association of Breast Surgery (ABS) representative for Scotland and Medicolegal lead.

University of Cambridge

Faculty

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Faculty

Dr. Bhattacharya is a consultant clinical oncologist in Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust