A world renowned consultant surgeon at the Royal Liverpool Hospital has been appointed a trustee at Clatterbridge Cancer Research.
Chris Holcombe is a specialist breast surgeon who has studied at world-wide centres of excellence for cancer and plastic reconstructive surgery in Tokyo and Atlanta.
Mr Holcombe, who lives in Wavertree, is also an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool and is already working with the Wirral cancer charity’s team of research scientists,
led by Professor Rob Sibson.
As a consultant general surgeon specialising in breast surgery, the new trustee has a particular interest in breast reconstruction and complex surgical aspects of recurrent breast cancer.
He has dedicated the last three years to being an Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon. For the last 13 years he has been Lead Clinician for Breast Services at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
In the last 9 years, he has been the regional lead for Surgical Quality Assurance for Merseyside within the National Breast Screening Programme.
As Medical Director for the Merseyside and Cheshire Cancer Network, Mr Holcombe holds the post of Clinical Director of the Breast Unit at the Liverpool city centre hospital.
For the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust, he is Lead Cancer Clinician.
Mr Holcombe has also held lecturer posts and senior lecturer posts at Cardiff and the University of Maiduguri in Northern Nigeria.
His patients have a casual comment by a nurse from Mr Holcombe’s teenage years that began his eminent career.
“I originally wanted to be a zoologist and, while I was in hospital for a minor operation an
anaesthetist noticed my books and asked why I didn’t do medicine,” he said. “It was a split-
second decision, I went into medicine.”
Despite his operation turning out to be unnecessary, Mr Holcombe’s contribution to cancer research and medicine is invaluable.
His interest in the molecular assessment of variations in breast cancer treatment response is in alignment with the work underway with Clatterbridge’s Cancer Research science team.
The team is examining how different cancers work in individuals – to help arrive at effective personalised treatments.
Merseyside and Cheshire are the UK’s cancer ‘black spots’ and hospital acknowledges that Mr Holcombe is an important member of the board of trustees to help people in the remit of the charity.
“Living in Liverpool you are much more likely to get cancer and even more likely to die from it,” said Mr Holcombe.
“But you can do something about your risk, avoiding weight gain, exercising regularly and not drinking too much markedly reduces the risk of cancer.
“Just 1.5 stone weight gain for women can increase their breast cancer risk by a third, while inherited breast cancer is much less common accounting for only 5 out of every 100 breast
cancers.”
Clatterbridge Cancer Research’s Director, Catherine Sandow, said: “Working even more closely with someone of the calibre of Chris Holcombe will add immeasurable benefits to the research work.
“Our supporters put so much effort into raising money to fund this work, Chris’s experience and time together represents a gift of the highest order and we are delighted to have him on board.”
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