John Boyages

Biography

 John is a cancer specialist with more than 30 years’ experience in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.  He regularly comments for the media and a media spokesperson for the McGrath Breast Foundation. After graduating from the University of Sydney, he trained at Westmead Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard University, Boston. He established breast cancer screening in the West of Sydney and Australia’s largest one-stop-shop clinical and diagnostic breast centre at the Westmead Breast Cancer Institute. He was first appointed to Macquarie University in 2011 as the Director of the cancer program and has helped establish many clinical, research and patient support programs related to cancer. He is a lateral thinker, enjoys technology, and lectures about clinical leadership. He is a radiation oncologist at Macquarie University Hospital and the author of several “Taking Control” books, including a recent publication on Male Breast Cancer. He has published more than 140 research papers and provide consultations to patients from all over Australia and the Asia-Pacific. He is a regular invitee to public and medical forums and enjoys imparting knowledge to health professionals, patients and their families. In 2015 he gave 30 invited lectures at National and International events.

Research Interest

Breast cancer screening and treatment Established the Advanced Lymphoedema Assessment Clinic (ALAC) in 2012, which provides a multidisciplinary team approach for surgical options for lymphoedema including liposuction and lymph node transfer surgery. The lymphoedema research program undertakes anatomic, molecular, physical, functional, psychological, imaging, economic, linguistic and surgical research related to lymphoedema. Macquarie University is the only university outside the US participating in the Vanderbilt University early detection clinical trial, contributing the highest number of trial subjects (400) across three sites to the total study cohort of 1,100 women.