Introduction to Breast Cancer

Anees is the Director of The Breast Center, Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven, an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery, Yale School of Medicine, the Program Director of the Interdisciplinary Breast Fellowship at Yale University, and the Assistant Director for Global Oncology at Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center. Born and raised in Canada, she completed her BSc in Honors Biochemistry and MD with Honors in Research at the University of Alberta, and her general surgery residency training and MSc at the University of Saskatchewan. She went on to complete the Susan G. Komen Interdisciplinary Breast Fellowship at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, an MPH at Harvard School of Public Health and an MA in Bioethics and Medical Humanities at the University of Louisville. After fellowship, she joined the University of Louisville as Assistant Professor of Surgery, rising rapidly through the ranks to Associate Professor with tenure and Academic Advisory Dean. She built the first nationally accredited Breast Center in Kentucky at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center prior to being recruited to Yale in September 2010 where she led the effort for Yale to become the first NCI designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Northeast to have a nationally accredited breast center. She is a busy breast surgical oncologist who participates in investigator-initiated and cooperative group clinical trials, as well as translational and clinical research. Her most recent ground-breaking work was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. She enjoys teaching and mentoring medical students, residents, fellows and junior faculty, and is the Breast Surgery Section Editor for UpToDate, a commonly used resource. She is passionate about global health and leadership in academic medicine, having most recently completed an MBA for Executives with a focus on Leadership in Healthcare at Yale’s School of Management.