MD, FACS
Assistant Professor, Surgery
UNC-Chapel Hill
Breast Cancer
Area of Interest
I am a surgical oncologist specializing in breast cancer and sarcoma.
My clinical research focuses on surgical management of cancer and patient outcomes. This goal is to try to understand the interaction and impact of patient factors and surgical management on recurrence, survival, and morbidity of treatment. The focus is to identify patient and tumor characteristics that can help individualize treatment. These areas of investigation also generate hypotheses for biologic and mechanistic studies.
In addition to advancing knowledge, these projects provide opportunities to introduce trainees to research methods, which allows them to improve reasoning, writing, and presentation skills, as well as provides a more in-depth foundation to critically appraise the literature.
Awards and Honors
- Society of Surgical Oncology Young Investigator Award, 2023
News and Stories
The path of escape: How breast tumor cells avoid common cancer therapy
A team of UNC researchers investigated how cell cycle flexibility allows tumor cells to escape the effect of anti-cancer drugs that target cell division.
Cancer patients donate tissue to help find new treatments
Missy Van Lokeren was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2018, and has became a patient advocate spreading awareness for tissue donation through the Patients And Researchers Together (PART) program.
