Dr Tan Kiat Tee, Benita

Biography

Dr Benita Tan is the Service Chief at the SGH campus, Senior Consultant at Singhealth Duke-NUS Breast Centre, the largest centre in Singapore treating the full spectrum of breast conditions. The Centre serves its patients at 3 key SingHealth institutions: National Cancer Centre Singapore, Singapore General Hospital, and KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Annually, the Centre manages over 1000 breast cancers patients, offering optimal treatment using the latest surgical techniques and cutting edge equipment. Experienced in a wide range of breast procedures, she performs breast biopsies including vacuum assisted biopsies (VAB) and breast cancer surgeries, from breast conserving cancer surgery to mastectomies including nipple and skin-sparing surgery for breast reconstruction. Dr Tan has a keen interest in breast cancer research, and has published in journals such as Breast Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research and Nature. As a strong believer of collaborative efforts, she works with local partners from National Cancer Centre, Singhealth Research, Genomic Institute of Singapore, Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology and the other local hospitals; as well as internationally with the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, Universiti Malaya and the Cancer Genome Project, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Dr Tan is actively involved in medical education and training. She is Adjunct Assistant Professor at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, and Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School. She is also the Assistant Programme Director for the SingHealth Post Graduate Year 1 Programme, Clinical Physician Faculty for the SingHealth General Surgery and Family Medicine Residency Programs, and the Fellowship Director for Academic Clinical Program (ACP) Surgery in Singhealth. She received the Certificate of Commendation, Role Model to the medical class of 2013 of the National University of Singapore. Dr Tan graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery in 1995. She trained as a general surgeon, completed her Membership examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1999 and obtained the Master of Medicine (Surgery), National University of Singapore a year after in 2000. She continued to pursue the advanced specialty training in General Surgery and was accredited as a specialist in General surgery in 2003, and has been a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (General Surgery) since 2004 and a Fellow in General Surgery at the Academy of Medicine, Singapore since 2005, sub-specializing in breast surgery. She attained her Doctor of Philosophy, at Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore in 2013. Patient care is of paramount importance to Dr Tan, and it brings her great warmth and smiles when she is able to provide comfort to her patients in their time of illness, and to know that we can provide good clinical service to achieve the best clinical outcome. She has been acknowledged with the Service with A Heart Award in 2010, 2011 and 2015.

Research Interest

Surgical Oncology