Spotlight on... Professor Jayant S Vaidya

This week Jayant, Professor of Surgery and Oncology at UCL Division of Surgery, shares the story of how he helped to develop a pioneering new treatment for breast cancer, which is featured as a case study in UCL's latest REF submission. What is your role and what does it involve?. I am Professor of Surgery and Oncology, involving thinking, dreaming, and doing research, teaching and clinical practice. How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?. I have been at UCL since 1996, as a surgical registrar/ research fellow, clinical lecturer, and after a gap of 4 years, senior lecturer, reader and professor. What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?. Conceiving the idea of targeted partial breast irradiation (PBI) during lumpectomy for breast cancer, inventing the technique of  TARGeted Intraoperative radioTherapy  ( TARGIT-IORT ) along with Professor Michael Baum and Professor Jeffrey Tobias, and persisting, against the usual opposition to change, to test its efficacy and producing the most robust evidence by conducting large international randomised clinical trials, in collaboration with clinicians, scientists, and patients worldwide, all spanning over 25 years.