Dr Carolyn Cho

Dr Carolyn Cho is an Australian-trained general surgeon with a particular interest in Surgical Oncology (skin and melanoma) and Breast oncoplastic and reconstructive surgery. She has been practicing in the ACT since 2002. Her initial training was in General Surgery followed by a Fellowship in Breast, Oncology and General Surgery. Part of this training was undertaken at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London. She is the current ACT representative of the oncoplastic subcommittee of the Breast Surgeons of Australia and New Zealand and Designated Surgeon at ACT BreastScreen.

Within the field of breast surgery, Dr Cho’s interest is in the application of breast reconstructive and oncoplastic techniques to breast cancer surgery. This aims to minimize the psychological impact of cancer surgery on patients and to achieve better aesthetic results following both mastectomy and breast-conserving surgery. Her other areas of interest are: the treatment of young women with breast cancer and the particular challenges this poses, including fertility preservation; the management of patients at high-risk of breast cancer; and the management of patients carrying a breast cancer gene.

Since commencing practice in the ACT, Dr Cho has been involved with ongoing research with the Breast Cancer Treatment Group (BCTG). She served as deputy chair and then as Chair of the BCTG for four years and she was one of the principal authors of the 10-year and 15 year reports from this Project. The BCTG Quality Assurance Project is the largest and longest running regional clinical database in breast cancer research in Australia. It has over 95% voluntary participation by patients and clinicians and is in its 17th year of data collection. Currently Dr Cho is part of the data subcommittee which manages this project. Dr Cho also regularly teaches and tutors surgical trainees and medical students from the Australian National University Medical School and James Cook Medical School (Queensland).