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Prof Dame Lesley Fallowfield

Lesley Fallowfield trained at Guy's Hospital London as a nurse before completing a degree in Experimental Psychology. Research for her DPhil in Psychophysics was done at the Universities of Sussex and Cambridge. Her primary research interests include:

Professor Fallowfield has contributed numerous articles to medical journals and has written three textbooks on QoL and communication in health care.

  • TRUSTING AZ Workshops 2025

    A series of workshops around the UK building on the previous workshops but incorporating new materials covering extra topics and scenarios.

  • POSNOC

    A randomised controlled trial of axillary treatment in women with early stage breast cancer who have metastases in one or two sentinel nodes. The aim of this trial is to determine whether axillary clearance or radiotherapy can be safely avoided in women receiving chemotherapy and/or hormone therapy following surgery for early stage breast cancer. The trial also explores how aspects of QoL and psychological well-being are affected by fear of cancer recurrence and long term side effects of axillary treatment.

  • CANCODE

    In order to develop an educational programme to help communication professionals working with d/Deaf and deaf-blind people (e.g. sign language interpreters) better understand what they may be required to interpret in cancer consultations, we are conducting a survey to find out what communication professionals feel are the biggest challenges when working in cancer consultations.

  • PACiFiC Pilot

    There is interest worldwide about using a drug called a PARP inhibitor (PARPi) in people with BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 gene changes. These drugs already work in patients with cancer who have gene changes. We hope that PARP inhibitors given to those with gene changes who do not have cancer will stop a cancer developing. Before doctors can design a chemoprevention trial using this drug, we need to find out the preferences and acceptability of such a study. Initial insights gained from members of the public - in this instance women - will help with trial design and the sort of information required.

  • HEARSAY e-learning

    We have adapted the one-day face to face HEARSAY workshop to help Healthcare Professionals improve their communication with patients who have metastatic breast cancer into an e-Learning course. We shall compare the e-Learning results (n=60 HCPs) with those from the face to face courses for equivalence, with the aim of providing it as an educational resource to the Royal Colleges.

  • Harder H, Jenkins V, & Fallowfield L. (2026). Perceptions and lived experiences with abemaciclib and endocrine therapy for early breast cancer: a rapid communication. Future Oncology, 1-7. Find it online here 22/05/2026
  • Fallowfield L, Solis-Trapala I, Habibi R, Jenkins V (2026) Evaluation of a novel communication workshop for healthcare professionals working with metastatic breast cancer patients The Breast, 104796, ISSN 0960-9776 Find it online here 06/05/2026
  • Schumarcher-Wulf E, Fallowfield L, Chidebe C W, Durston V, Eniu A, Kaur R, Haidinger R, Pillay N, Egbase D, Han Y, Cardoso F (2026), Biomarker recall and understanding among people living with metastatic breast cancer - results from an international patient survey, The Breast, Volume 86, April 2026, 104737 Find it online here 01/04/2026
  • Fallowfield L, Boyle F, Haidinger R, Magsanoc-Alikpala K, Travado L, Aapro M, Wolkensdorfer Z, Lewis A, Attfield G, Cardoso F. (2025) Improving communication between healthcare professionals and patients living with advanced breast cancer: a global expert review and call-to-action for 2025-2035 (Goal 5), The Breast, 104610 Find it online here 06/11/2025
  • Bruce C, Sadiq S, Calvert C, Dodwell D, Fairbrother P, Fallowfield L, Jenkins V ...Montgomery A. (2025) A randomised SWAT assessing the impact of an enhanced patient information leaflet on recruitment in a trial of axillary treatment for early-stage breast cancer [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review]. F1000Research 2025, 14:1145 Find it online here 21/10/2025
  • Fallowfield L, Kiely BE, Travado L, Ventura R, Dullehan J, Cardoso F. (2025) Best practices for communication of prognosis and end-of-life discussions with patients with advanced breast cancer: A report from the advanced breast cancer global alliance. The Breast. 2025 Oct 11:104595. Find it online here 11/10/2025
  • Hunter R, Jenkins V, Fallowfield L, Jones J & Shilling V. (2025). Patient and caregiver understanding of multiple myeloma: A scoping review. European Journal of Oncology Nursing, Volume 79, 102992, ISSN 1462-3889 Find it online here 04/10/2025
  • Starkings, R., Fallowfield, L., Russ, S. & Jenkins, V. (2025). Qualitative Findings From a Survey Measuring Informational Needs and Quality of Life of Women Living With Metastatic Breast Cancer. Psycho-Oncology, 34: e70177. https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.70177 Find it online here 10/05/2025
  • Starkings R, Harder H, Fallowfield L, Shilling V. (2025) Exploring the real-world experience of abemaciclib treatment for HR +, HER2- metastatic breast cancer - a qualitative analysis of the IMPACTOR study. Supporive Care in Cancer; 33 (421). Find it online here 26/04/2025
  • Harder H, Starkings R, Fallowfield L, May S, & Shilling V. (2025) Incidence and management of diarrhoea associated with abemaciclib and endocrine therapy for hormone-receptor positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer: the UK patients' experiences. Support Care Cancer 33, 422. Find it online here 26/04/2025
lesley
EMAIL: adminshore-c@sussex.ac.uk PHONE: 01273 873019 BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/shore-c.bsky.social LOCATION: MAP