E48 Masterclass Alison Laws On Neoadjuvant Therapy In Breast Cancer, ALND and Becoming a Patient

Dr. Laws graduated from the University of British Columbia and obtained her medical degree from McMaster University. She completed a general surgery residency at the University of Calgary and a breast surgical oncology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women’s Hospital.She is currently pursuing a Master of Public Health in epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a member of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) and the American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS).Dr. Laws’ clinical and research interests include optimizing oncologic outcomes after breast cancer surgery, improving cancer care delivery through implementation of evidence-based practices, as well as managing patients at high-risk for breast cancer.We were lucky enough to get her expertise about a number of important topics, including neoadjuvant therapy for breast cancer, indications for axillary node dissection in 2020, and an approach to recurrent breast cancer. Finally, we delve into her experience as a patient, and how that shaped her practice as a surgeon.Links:1. Intraoperative Margin Assessment in Wire-Localized Breast-Conserving Surgery for Invasive Cancer: A Population-Level Comparison of Techniques. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27406094/2. Does intra-operative margin assessment improve margin status and re-excision rates? A population-based analysis of outcomes in breast-conserving surgery for ductal carcinoma in situ. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30293241/ Breast Biopsy During Post-treatment Surveillance of Screen-Detected Breast Cancer Patients Yields High Rates of Benign Findings. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32100221/3. Margins in Breast-Conserving Surgery After Neoadjuvant Therapy. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30128902/4. KATHERINE trial: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa18140175. CREATE-X trial: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa16126456. RX-PONDER: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-49644-67. The surgeon who underwent surgery: How being a patient changed him. https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2019/10/the-surgeon-who-underwent-surgery-how-being-a-patient-changed-him.html