Personal Profile
He studied medicine in Cambridge and Oxford, completing the MRCP in 2005. He specialised in Clinical Oncology, training at the Royal Marsden Hospital and then the Oxford Deanery.
Clinical Oncology training coves both chemotherapy and radiotherapy, as well as immunotherapy and targeted therapies. The aim is to provide comprehensive cancer expertise so that all options for treatment can be considered.
After his basic training, he spent a year in Melbourne, Australia, at the famous Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre as a Clinical and Research Fellow. There he learned advanced radiotherapy techniques and completed research into the use of PET/CT to personalise follow-up in head and neck cancers.
In 2014 he returned to the UK, taking up a post in Clinical Oncology at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He treats Breast and Head & Neck cancers, based at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford. He also has breast cancer clinics in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. He chairs the MDT (multidisciplinary cancer care teams) treating head and neck cancer in Oxford and is a core member of the Wycombe General Hospital breast cancer MDT.
Nobody is quite ready for a diagnosis of breast cancer. Just when you felt quite busy enough, there are urgent decisions to be made. What type of surgery? Do I need chemotherapy? Is hormone therapy for me?
Even those who spend their professional lives in breast cancer care can find it difficult to keep up with the latest techniques, drugs and advice. For those who never planned to get involved it can be daunting.
Ketan believes that an oncologist does not treat cancer – they treat an entire person who happens (against their will) to have cancer. As a specialist in all oncological aspects of breast cancer care, he will aim to inform and guide you in making the right choices for you. He would then personally oversee your treatment, aiming to get you through, and beyond this unwelcome episode in your life.
Ketan has an interest in Clinical Ethics, supporting clinicians with the difficult ethical decisions of modern medicine. In 2017 he co-founded the OUH Clinical Ethics Advisory Group and was its first Chair.
Clinical Interests
- Personalised comprehensive oncology care for breast cancer and head & neck cancers.
- Chemotherapy
- Chemotherapy is the use of strong anticancer drugs to kill cancer cells.
- Increasingly, there are targeted drugs (such as those against the HER2 switch) and immunotherapy options for breast cancer.
- Radiotherapy
- Modern radiotherapy technology such as IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy) and DIBH (Deep Inspiration Breath Hold) can reduce particularly the long term side effects of treatment.
- Lifestyle and Wellbeing
- Living with and beyond breast cancer with a healthy lifestyle.
Professional Memberships
- Fellowship of the Royal College of Radiologists (Faculty of Clinical Oncology)
- British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists
- European Society for Therapeutic Radiation Oncology
Professional Website
