Ethnicity and Breast Cancer Working Group

The Ethnicity and Breast Cancer Working Group (EBCWG) is convened and chaired by Dr Toral Gathani. The group is multidisciplinary and includes academics and clinicians with an interest in health inequality research and public contributors. Membership is voluntary, non-remunerated and by invitation.

The aim of the EBCWG is to enhance breast cancer care and outcomes for all women, particularly those from ethnic minority backgrounds. Using their common interests and expertise in breast cancer and/or health inequalities, EBCWG members seek to:

focus their expertise on ethnicity and breast cancer research
share ideas and develop collaborations to widen expertise within the group as it develops
ensure the long-term sustainability of the group with respect to funding
develop and encourage diversity in PPIE activities.

meetings

jUNE 2025

The Oxford team provided updates on the current work of the EBC Project and other members of the working group gave talks on the benefits of training breast cancer survivors as health advocates in the community, improving diversity in clinical trials and inequities in databases for genomic studies.

November 2024

Talks at this meeting included topics such as examining the correlation between self-reported ethnicity and ancestry and the emerging research areas in cancer health disparities. The challenges of conducting research in the national breast screening programme that can address diversity was also discussed.

June 2024

This was a one-day meeting held at Green Templeton College. Topics discussed included the use of social marketing tools to improve screening uptake in underserved groups and a presentation from our patient representative on cancer and emotional resilience.

September 2023

The inaugural meeting of the EBCWG was held over two days in Oxford. All members of the group gave short presentations on their work which included approaches to improving diversity in clinical trials, diagnostic delays for cancer in different ethnic groups, and addressing diversity in Patient and Public Involvement groups.

group members

Dr Amish Acharya Amish is a surgical registrar at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and a scientific advisor at Imperial College London. He led a project in North-West London which aimed to use behaviour science-informed interventions to facilitate breast screening uptake amongst populations including underserved communities.	Dr Tanimola Martins Tanimola is a senior research fellow and lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School. His research aims to identify sociodemographic differences in primary care diagnosis of cancer, with the aim of addressing such inequalities.
Dr Tiantian Chen Tiantian is a qualitative researcher at the University of Oxford. She is interested in the intersection of gender, health, and technology. She also serves as Chair of Global 50/50.	Dr Georgette Oni Georgette is a consultant plastic surgeon who specializes in oncoplastic breast surgery at the Cambridge Breast Unit. She founded and convenes the annual Let's Talk About... Black Women and Breast Cancer conference, which has been running for 8 years. Georgette is also a trustee at Breast Cancer Now.
Professor Ramsey Cutress Ramsey is a professor of breast surgery in Southampton, with research interests in the role of ethnicity, genetic predisposition, immunological and lifestyle factors in breast cancer outcomes.	Dr Tanvi Rai Tanvi is a mixed methods researcher with a PhD in public health. She is a senior researcher at the University of Oxford with an interest in health inequalities.
Dr Shoba Dawson Shoba is a senior research fellow in inclusive research at the University of Sheffield. She co-leads the Trial Forge Inclusive Research Centre (Sheffield) which aims to improve inclusivity in trials.	Dr Fharat Raja Fharat is a consultant medical oncologist at University College London Hospital (UCLH), and Royal Free Trust, specialising in breast cancer. She has been a clinical fellow for many years and she is the research lead and a principal investigator on several national and international trials. Fharat is also a trustee for the breast cancer charity 'Future Dreams'.
Mr Rajiv Dave Rajiv is a consultant oncoplastic breast and endocrine surgeon a Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust. Alongside being a Principal Investigator at the Manchester Breast Centre with an interest in local community-based interventions, he also leads the Kenya UK Breast Cancer Alliance.	Professor Gillian Reeves Gill is a professor of epidemiology and Director of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford. Her main research interests are the roles of hormonal and other risk factors in the development of female cancers. She is co-principal investigator of the Million Women Study.
Mrs Bep Dhaliwal Bep is a passionate patient advocate with lived experience of cancer. She has worked alongside charities and regional cancer leads to create greater engagement of cancer services for communities by sharing the patient and carer experience as well as working with clinicians to better understand and improve the patient experience.	Dr Nisha Sharma Nisha is an expert in breast screening, radiology and the use of AI in breast screening. She is a consultant radiologist at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals and Director of the Breast Screening Programme for Leeds and Wakefield.
Dr David Dodwell David is a senior breast oncologist and senior clinical research fellow with a number of research and governance interests. He works in the Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group and the Benefits and Risks of Cancer Treatments Group in Oxford Population Health. He is the lead oncologist on the Sloane and NHS breast screening audits and co-lead for the national audits in primary and metastatic breast cancer.	Professor Sasha Shepperd Sasha is a professor of health services research at the University of Oxford with an interest in health systems research.
Dr Toral Gathani Toral is an associate professor at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on ethnicity and breast cancer and she is Principal Investigator for the CRUK funded Ethnicity and Breast Cancer project. She is also Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.	Dr Matt Silver Matt is an associate professor in genetic epidemiology with an interest in population genomics and epigenetics at the MRC Unit in The Gambia and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is a former Lead Genomic Data Scientist for the Diverse Data Initiative at Genomics England.
Mrs Kudzai Heald Kudzai is a research assistant at the University of Oxford on the Ethnicity and Breast Cancer project.	Dr Siân Sweetland Siân is a senior statistical epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, working on various research projects within The Million Women Study .
Professor Sheeba Irsha Sheeba is a breast cancer oncologist and professor of cancer immunology at King’s College London, and a Work Package lead for immune profiling within the CRUK Cancer Grand Challenges SAMBAI project. Her research interests examine how social determinants of health and ethnicity drive measurable biological changes in immune systems and tumour microenvironments.	Dr Yvonne Walburga Joko-Fru Yvonne is a physician and cancer epidemiologist. She is currently a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Cambridge, where she investigates the influence of therapy on survival from breast, prostate, ovarian and pancreatic cancers
Dr Yasmin Jauhari Yasmin is a breast surgery registrar in the Wessex Deanery. Her PhD examined breast cancer outcomes in older women in the UK, and she has a strong interest in data science and the implementation of data-driven quality improvement initiatives.	Mrs Sau Wan Kan Sau Wan is a statistical programmer at the University of Oxford.
Mrs Julliet Lwiindi Julliet is a public engagement and involvement officer within Oxford Cancer at the University of Oxford. Julliet co-leads the Ethnicity and Breast Cancer Patient and Public Involvement Group.

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