Florey Annual Public Lecture

Is it Time for a Personalized Approach to Breast Cancer Screening and Prevention?

Presenter: Dr. Laura Esserman
When: Thursday 21 August 2025
Time: 6.00 - 7.00 pm (light refreshments to follow)
Where: AHMS building, North Terrace, ground floor, G030 lecture theatre

“You have breast cancer” are the most feared words by women all over the world.

Mammography screening was initiated to combat this disease and find it early, in hopes of eliminating death from breast cancer.  But breast cancer is complex as it is not one disease.  It ranges from extremely slow to extremely fast growing and multiple types in-between.

There are many risk factors that range from genes that you inherit to specific exposures to how dense your breast tissue is as well as hormonal and obstetrical history.

If breast cancer is not one disease, and if everyone has different risk factors, why are we still approaching breast cancer screening as if one size fits all?

Internationally recognised Dr. Laura Esserman will present new approaches to personalizing screenings that are being tested through the WISDOM* (US) AND My PeBS** (Europe, Israel).  We don’t just want to detect breast cancer early; we want to reduce the chance of developing it.  Given the enormous effort and expense of screening and the personal burden for women, we should make sure that we are learning how to optimize our approach and target way to improve where current screening has fallen short. 

*Women Informed to Screen Depending on Measures of Risk (WISDOM)

**My Personalized Breast Cancer Screening

Presenter

Dr. Laura Esserman, MD, MBA is the director of the UCSF Breast Care Center, and is recognized as a thought leader in cancer screening and over-diagnosis, as well as innovative clinical trial design.

She led the creation of the University of California-wide Athena Breast Health Network, a learning system designed to integrate clinical care and research as it follows 150,000 women from screening through treatment and outcomes.

The Athena Network launched the PCORI-funded WISDOM Study, which tests a personalized approach to breast cancer screening in 100,000 women.

She is also a leader of the innovative I-SPY TRIAL model, designed to accelerate the identification and approval of effective new agents for women with high risk breast cancers. 

Dr Esserman in renowned as the "singing surgeon" for singing to her patients as they go under anaesthesia.