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Professor Jayant Vaidya is a breast cancer expert who specialises in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the breast. He currently divides his time equally between research and clinical work. He is a Consultant Surgeon at the Whittington, Royal Free and University College London Hospitals.
He is very active in many research projects for breast disease and breast cancer. With his PhD thesis at University College London, he pioneered the concept of targeted intraoperative radiotherapy (TARGIT or IORT), to deliver radiotherapy to women at the time of lumpectomy surgery rather than the traditional 6-week course of daily post-operative radiotherapy. In the year 2000, he was featured on BBC’s Tomorrow’s World in relation to this.
He qualified in surgical oncology (MBBS MS DNB) from the Bombay University and the National Board. His PhD is from London University and he is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, FRCS, UK. At the age of 17 he was declared a National Scholar and received a scholarship throughout his medical education.
He has worked at the Tata Memorial Hospital, Royal Marsden Hospital, University College London and the University of Dundee, and is now Professor of Surgery and Oncology at University College London
Clinical Practice
He has a busy clinical practice. He has long experience in all aspects of breast cancer treatment and care including diagnosis of breast pain, breast lumps, nipple discharge, second opinions, consultations about breast cancer risk, and comprehensive treatment of breast cancer.
He has extensive experience in breast cancer surgery including lumpectomy, wide local excision, quadrantectomy with glandular remodelling for breast cancer, sentinel node biopsy / axillary sampling, axillary clearance, targeted intraoperative radiotherapy (TARGIT IORT), operations on nipple, mastectomy with or without breast reconstruction. He works in conjunction with expert plastic surgeons for breast reconstructive surgery.
He is well versed with multidisciplinary approach to breast cancer treatment and works very closely with a renowned team of medical oncologists, radiotherapists, radiologists and pathologists, as well as specialists in psychosocial care.Research Interests
Professor Vaidya is considered a world opinion leader in breast cancer. He has over 200 original publications on varied subjects, and has given over 150 invited talks, including the European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC), European Cancer Conference (ECCO), Milan breast cancer conference, American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO-Breast), San Antonio breast cancer conference. He has been invited to contribute to several books on breast cancer including Fast Facts breast cancer, and Fast Facts Early Breast cancer . He has also featured in Time Magazine and Reader's Digest.
His main research interest is understanding the natural history of breast cancer and how to treat it with maximum effectiveness and minimal harm. His work on TARGIT IORT was inspired by his original laboratory work in 1994-5, that led him to the idea that breast cancer treatment with surgery and radiotherapy needs to be focussed and targeted. Working with Professor Michael Baum and Professor Jeffrey S Tobias, he developed the concept, tools and the surgical operative procedure to give targeted intraoperative radiotherapy to the tissues immediately around a breast cancer, after it is surgically removed. He called it TARGIT- for TARGeted Intraoperative radioTherapy.
The TARGIT IORT procedure has been now been used in >250 centres in 35 countries over 45,000 women worldwide. Given as a tumour bed boost, TARGIT appears to achieve more than 98% durable local control, a remarkable result. The TARGIT-B trial will inform us whether TARGIT boost is superior to the standard postoperative boost because it is accurately timed and targeted. His recent collaoborative translational research work suggests that TARGIT treatment may also change the tumour micro-environment making it less conducive for tumour growth.
The international TARGIT-A trial was published in the Lancet in 2010 and 2014. The TARGIT-A trial found that the risk adapted approach of using single-dose intraoperative radiotherapy gives breast cancer outcomes similar to several weeks of daily radiotherapy, and also reduces deaths from causes other then breast cancer (eg heart attacks and other cancers)
The long term results of the TARGIT-A trial were recently published in the British Medical Journal and confirmed the initial results. Risk-adapted single-dose TARGIT-IORT given during lumpectomy for breast cancer was as effective as traditional whole breast radiotherapy given daily for several weeks achieving excellent excellent local and distant breast cancer control, breast preservation and survival from breast cancer. Amongst women allocated TARGIT-IORT there were also substantially lower mortality from non-breast cancer causes, mainly because of fewere deaths from cardiovascular and lung problems and from other cancers. This could be due to avoidance of unncessary scattered radiation to these vital organs. These results received wide media attention - over 100 news channels and on national and international TV and radio A short video describes the long term outcomes of the TARGIT-A trial
To read more about his publications, please browse this website and for literature about the TARGIT trials, go to www.targit.org.uk One-stop Breast Cancer TreatmentContact details
NHS: Department of Surgery, Whittington Hospital NHS Trust, Magdala Avenue, London N19 5NF. Tel: 0207 288 5831
Academic: Division of Surgery and Interventional Science, 3rd floor, Charles Bell House, 43-45 Foley Street, London W1W 7TS: 0207 679 9280
Private patients: Breast Clinic and Surgical operations at the King Edward VII hospital and the London Clinic Tel: 07306 444 066 or 0207 034 8890
Selected and Recent publications
Papers and Presentations related to TARGeted Intraoperative radioTherapy (TARGIT)