Dr Lisa Caldon

Lisa Caldon

Academic Surgical Oncology Unit
University of Sheffield, Royal Hallamshire Hospital
Sheffield

Factors that influence the treatment of women with breast cancer

Dr Lisa Caldon is a breast cancer surgeon working at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield. She is investigating the factors that influence the treatment of breast cancer, and how women choose between the different surgical options.

Surgery is commonly used to treat breast cancer. Women diagnosed with the disease will often have to choose between having a mastectomy and having surgery that removes the tumour while conserving the rest of the breast.

In the UK, and abroad, there are wide variations in the proportion of women who are treated for breast cancer by mastectomy, compared to those who have breast-conserving surgery.

Dr Caldon's previous research looked at the treatment of more than 5,000 women with breast cancer in the Trent region of the UK, and found a significant variation between treatment units there.

Both treatments are thought to be equally effective, as long as those having breast-conserving surgery also have radiotherapy to their breast. Different things are important to women making these choices. But women also naturally rely on information and guidance from surgeons and nurses treating them in order to make their decision.

So Dr Caldon is examining how patients’ decisions are influenced by how they are given information by doctors and nurses. She will be using various methods, including analysing data on treatment and information from questionnaires and interviews with patients, nurses and surgeons. The results of this research could help improve training for health professionals.

icon-a-z-20x20

Visit our A-Z topic pages

 

If you want to help support more research like this, please visit our Donate Now page.