Breast Cancer and the Challenge of Metastasis
About This Video
Dr. Kurian will discuss the national and global context of breast cancer, which is the most common cancer of women; risk factors and treatment pathways for early-stage disease; and the challenge of preventing and treating metastatic disease, which is currently incurable. Dr. Kurian will outline the differences between breast cancer subtypes, such as triple-negative versus hormone receptor-positive, and the need to address health disparities in access to high-quality cancer care.
In This Video
Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University
Allison W. Kurian, M.D., M.Sc. is a Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology & Population Health at Stanford University. She is Associate Chief of the Oncology Division, Director of the Women’s Cancer Genetics Program, and Co-Leader of the Stanford Cancer Institute Population Sciences Program. Dr. Kurian graduated from Stanford, attended Harvard Medical School followed by Internal Medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and completed Oncology fellowship and a master’s degree in Epidemiology at Stanford.
Dr. Kurian’s research focuses on the identification of women with elevated breast risk, and on the development and evaluation of techniques for early cancer detection and risk reduction. As an oncologist and epidemiologist, she aims to understand cancer burden and improve treatment quality at the population level. Her research employs methods from the population sciences, in collaboration with the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results Program and other large, real-world data resources. Dr. Kurian leads epidemiologic studies of cancer risk factors, clinical trials of novel approaches to cancer risk reduction, and decision analyses of strategies to improve cancer outcomes. Her work has been honored by Impact Awards of the National Consortium of Breast Centers and the BRCA Foundation, and election to the American Society of Clinical Investigation.