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Ethnicity and Breast Cancer

AgeX Trial

Festival of Global Health

Toral Gathani is an Associate Professor in the Cancer Epidemiology Unit (CEU) at Oxford Population Health. She is a Consultant Breast Surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and the clinical lead for Thames Valley Cancer Alliance Breast Cancer Clinical Quality Group. She was appointed Senior Research Fellow at Green Templeton College in 2019. 

Her main research interests are in the intersection of ethnicity and breast cancer, the role of health systems in early cancer detection and diagnosis, and of breast cancer as a global health challenge. 

She is the Principal Investigator for a Cancer Research UK funded project on Ethnicity and Breast Cancer. The Royal College of Surgeons of England awarded her a prestigious Hunterian Lecture, and courtesy title of Hunterian Professor 2022, for her work in this area. In parallel, she is the academic co-lead for the Data Diversity Theme at Data Science for Health Equity.

She is the Chief Investigator of AgeX (funded by Cancer Research UK) which is assessing the benefits and risks of extending the age range for routine screening invitations. She was appointed the co-chair for the Research, Innovation and Development Advisory Committee (RIDAC) for the NHS Breast Screening Programme in 2025.

Other national roles include the UK Breast Cancer Clinical Studies Group and the Audit Advisory Committee for the National Audit of Primary Breast Cancer.  

Toral has spent time working in India in a research and clinical capacity, and is a past recipient of a British Medical Association Humanitarian Award for public health related work in Assam, India. She is on the steering committee of the Kenya UK Breast Cancer Alliance. 

She founded and convenes the events for the Festival of Global Health which explores health topics through film, followed by a panel discussion with film makers and academic experts.

She studied Medicine at the University of St Andrews and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Medical School graduating in 1999 with Honours. She undertook her surgical training in London and at the Nottingham Breast Institute. Toral was a research fellow in the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at Oxford in 2003-2006 where she undertook the research for her MD thesis.