Professor and Consultant Surgeon at Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, India
Dr. Shalaka is a young and energetic breast cancer surgeon. After finishing MS in General Surgery from the prestigious Sir G.S. Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai; she joined the Tata Memorial Centre to pursue MCh is Surgical Oncology. She spent a year at the King’s College London at the Guy’s campus to learn the intricacies of translational cancer research and completed the MRes degree from University of London. Dr Shalaka is practicing as a breast surgical oncologist at Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Centre since 2013. The knowledge of intricacies of laboratory research helped her establish and be a part of the Clinician Scientist Laboratory in Advanced Centre for Treatment, Education and Research in Cancer (ACTREC). She is a principal investigator of several clinical and translational studies including a randomized controlled trial on neoadjuvant chemotherapy versus chemo-endocrine therapy in operable breast cancer patients. A recently completed randomized trial of “a decision aid (DA) (developed with the help of Harvard Inc and Navya Network) to help less empowered women from the developing countries like India choose between breast conservation surgery and mastectomy” was presented at the SABCS, 2019 and ASCO, 2020. A few studies are currently ongoing with respect to understanding novel therapeutic options for triple negative breast cancer and effort to establish gene signature for tumour dormancy to study mechanisms of late recurrences in hormone receptor positive breast cancer. Other than a keen aptitude for research, an astute eye for aesthetics of breast cancer surgery has made her learn and adapt various oncoplastic procedures in routine practice to improve the quality of life of Indian breast cancer patients.
