Sarah Vinnicombe
Contact
Biography
Dr Vinnicombe was a Consultant Radiologist at Barts and The London NHS Trust from 1996 till 2011, where she was Lead Breast Radiologist, Director of Breast Screening for Central and East London and Lead Radiologist for Haemato-oncology. She was co-chair of the Early Diagnosis workstream of the pan-London review of Cancer Services, supported by Commissioning for London, in 2010 and led on a LEAN review of breast services at Barts and The London. During her time at Barts and The London, she was College Tutor and Head of the Radiology Training Programme, overseeing 35 trainee radiologists. She has particular expertise in breast MRI, (having developed this service at Barts and trained many radiologists in in this technique up and down the country), all aspects of breast imaging and in cross-sectional imaging of lymphoma, including PET/CT scanning.
She moved to Ninewells Hospital in May 2011 to pursue research in Cancer Imaging. Her research interests include multimodality MRI in breast and prostate cancer, imaging prediction of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiological aspects of breast cancer risk.
In 2013, Dr Vinnicombe was the British Society of Breast Radiology’s Visiting Professor, during which time she visited and taught at 6 Clinical Radiology training schemes in the UK, with excellent feedback.d: 11/03/2014
Research
Major research interests are in various aspects of breast imaging, including: measurement of breast density and correlation with breast cancer risk; the role of breast tomosynthesis in symptomatic and screening practices; breast MRI in l assessment of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. At St. Bartholomew’s Hospital she enrolled the Breast Unit in the pilot NEO-COMICE trial of MRI in response assessment after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and was PI for the multicentre UK trial of digital breast tomosynthesis (TOMMY), funded through the HTA.
Named, funded project partner in novel phase contrast mammography research (in collaboration with UCL):
· The Wellcome Trust Translational Award for ‘A Novel Mammography System based on XPCi’: Total value £460,735
· Co-investigator, Da Costa Foundation Grant: 4 different methods of evaluating breast density; a case-control study. PI. (St. Bartholomew’s and Royal Marsden Hospitals): Total value $177,000
Current research:
· Xray diffraction of breast cancers; a feasibility study. Breast Cancer Campaign 2015
· Assessment of breast density and correlation with breast cancer risk (HAMAM project, funded through the EU FP7)
· Thiel cadaveric tissue as a model for high Intensity Focused Ultrasound (Dundee Cancer Centre, 2014)
· The diagnostic value of breast tomosynthesis in symptomatic patients with suspicious clinical findings.
· Multiparametric MRI in detection and characterization of prostate cancer: MULTIPROS (Prostate UK/CSO) – co-investigator
· Modelling of Breast Cancer Initiation and Progression: MIMIC (EPSRC 2013-2015) – co-investigator
· Stromal studies of breast cancer response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy: SPECIALS (Breakthrough Breast Cancer, 2013-2018) – joint PI
Lectures and conferences
RCR ASM, September 2015: a) Management of the MR Indeterminate Breast Lesion. b) MRI in high risk breast cancer screening
UKRC June 2015 (breast programme organiser): An Update on the MRI BI-RADS lexicon and how to report breast MRI
ESOR Multithematic Radiology Course, Mexico April 2015: a) high risk screening b) clinical challenges in breast MRI
UK Inflammatory Breast Cancer Symposium, April 2015: Imaging features of Inflammatory Breast Cancer
ICIS International Teaching Conference, Hong Kong January 2015: a) MRI in breast cancer screening b) Imaging of Response of locally advanced breast cancer to neoadjuvant chemotherapy
Teaching
As already listed plus:
Reproduction System teaching
MSc student teaching and supervision (with IMSaT and Engineering)
PhD supervision
Specialty Training Adviser, Radiology, since 2014 (Royal College of Radiologists appointment)