Areas of Focus

Breast cancer is a complex disease with no simple solution. That's why our researchers are tackling it from every angle. Learn more about our areas of focus and why each is critical to knowing how to fight cancer from the start, slow its progress and one day stop it from occurring altogether.

Survivorship

There are more breast cancer survivors today than ever before. We know the last round of treatment, however, doesn’t mark the end of one’s journey with the disease. Breast cancer changes a person’s life in many ways.

Women and men can face a multitude of physical, mental and emotional challenges, ranging from pain and fatigue to cognitive and sleeping issues, making quality of life after treatment all the more important to our researchers. Today, with nearly three million survivors in the U.S. alone, not only is the definition of breast cancer changing but also what it means to manage the disease.

Survivorship Researchers

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Melissa Accordino, MD

Dr. Accordino has been at Columbia University Medical Center since 2012, when she began her Clinical Hematology/Oncology Fellowship.  Since that time, she has worked on a number of research projects related to health outcomes, quality of cancer care, cancer care...
Debra L. Barton, RN, PhD

Debra Barton has been a funded investigator in oncology symptom management since 2002, having developed, implemented and completed 11 large multi-site intervention trials. She has developed phase II and III clinical trials in a variety of symptoms including fatigue,...
Monica Bertagnolli, MD

Dr. Bertagnolli is a Professor of Surgery at Harvard University Medical School, and an Associate Surgeon at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital . She is presently the Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at Dana Farber/Brigham and Women’...
Carol J. Fabian, MD

Carol Fabian received her MD, internal medicine and oncology training from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City, Kansas.  Dr. Fabian joined the faculty at the University of Kansas Medical Center in 1977 and currently holds the rank of...
Dame Lesley Fallowfield, DBE, BSc, DPhil, MedSci

Dame Lesley Fallowfield is Professor of Psycho-oncology at Brighton & Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex where she is Director of the Sussex Health Outcomes Research & Education in Cancer (SHORE-C) group.  Dame Lesley originally trained as a nurse...
Patricia A. Ganz, MD

Patricia A. Ganz, MD, a medical oncologist, has been a member of the faculty of the UCLA School of Medicine since 1978 and the UCLA School of Public Health since 1992. Since 1993 she has been the Director of Cancer Prevention and Control Research at the Jonsson...
Dawn Hershman, MD, MS

Dr. Hershman is Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Columbia University and is Leader of the Breast Cancer Program of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. She completed her medical degree at The Albert Einstein College of Medicine where she was Alpha...
Arti Hurria, MD

Dr. Arti Hurria is a geriatrician and oncologist, focusing on care of the older patient with breast cancer. She completed a geriatric fellowship in the Harvard Geriatric Fellowship Program, followed by a hematology-oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer...
Melinda L. Irwin , PhD, MPH

Melinda L. Irwin, PhD, MPH is a tenured professor at the Yale School of Public Health and co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program at Yale Cancer Center. Dr. Irwin's primary research interests are physical activity, weight and cancer prevention...
Ephrat Levy-Lahad, MD

Ephrat Levy-Lahad, MD, is Professor of Internal Medicine and Medical Genetics at Hebrew University and Director of the Medical Genetics Institute at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. She is one of the world's foremost authorities on inherited breast cancer...
Charles Loprinzi, MD

Dr. Loprinzi is currently the Regis Professor of Breast Cancer Research at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN where he is an emeritus chair of the Division of Medical Oncology and an emeritus Vice-Chair of the Department of Oncology. He has run an active cancer...
Ann Partridge, MD, MPH

Ann Partridge, MD, MPH is a medical oncologist and clinical researcher focused on improving the care and outcomes of patients with cancer, with a focus on treatment, survivorship, and psychosocial issues facing women with breast cancer.  She founded and directs...
Electra D. Paskett, PhD, MSPH

Electra Paskett, received her doctorate in epidemiology from the University of Washington and became the Marion N. Rowley Professor of Cancer Research at The Ohio State University in 2002. She is Director of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control in the College...
George W. Sledge, Jr., MD

George W. Sledge Jr., MD, is Professor and Chief of Medical Oncology at Stanford University Medical Center.  He specializes in the study and treatment of breast cancer and directed the first large, nationwide study on the use of paclitaxel to treat advanced breast...
Annette L. Stanton, PhD

Annette L. Stanton, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry/Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, senior research scientist at the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, and a member of the Center for Cancer Prevention and...
Vered Stearns, MD

Dr. Stearns joined the faculty at the Breast Cancer Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in 2002. She was appointed as co-Director of the Breast Cancer Program in 2010, and to full Professor in 2013 and co-Director of the...
Norman Wolmark, MD

Dr. Norman Wolmark, MD, is Chairman of  NSABP Foundation, a not-for-profit academic research organization with a nearly 60-year history of conducting ground-breaking research studies in breast and colorectal cancer.He is also Professor and Chairman of Human...
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Survivorship News

BCRF News
BCRF Investigators Host International Meeting on Breast Cancer Recurrence
Science News
Relationships, Intimacy, and Sex for Young Women with Breast Cancer
Stories That Inspire
A New Diagnosis. An Unexpected Love Story.
See All News