For over 30 years, Dr. Narod, has shaped our knowledge of how to assess the risk and reduce cancer incidence and mortality in women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. A world-leader in the fields of breast and ovarian cancer genetics, Dr. Narod studies various aspects of cancer genetics, including prevention, screening and treatment, to determine how to best deliver services within our healthcare system.
In 2005 he was named the world’s most cited research on breast cancer.
Through the establishment of the Familial Breast Cancer Research Unit, Dr. Narod leads an internationally renowned research program in cancer genetics. Dr. Narod and his team have documented more than a dozen factors that reduce inherited cancer risk including medications and preventative surgery such as mastectomy and oophorectomy. Dr. Narod’s findings have impacted clinical guidelines for the preventive management and treatment of hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. He is now studying treatment and outcomes for women with hereditary breast cancer.
His research database of over 18,000 women from 20 countries supports numerous international collaborations. He has held leadership roles in cancer genetics studies in North America, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Dr. Narod and his team are also advocates for genetic testing for women who do not have access to current public programs. They have launched The Screen Project, a national initiative to make BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic screening available to all Canadians at an accessible price. www.TheScreenProject.ca
His research on ductal carcinoma in situ has refined our understanding of the early stages of breast cancer and challenges current treatment recommendations.
His studies of bilateral breast cancer have shown that preventive contralateral mastectomy does not reduce the risk of dying of breast cancer and this challenges our conventional thinking about how breast cancer spreads.
He is the co-leader of a Canada-wide study of breast cancer outcomes of women diagnosed with breast cancer below the age of 40 – the RUBY study.
Dr. Narod is an author of over 1000 papers and has an h-index of 139 (Web of Science). He is the first author or senior author on eighty papers that have been cited over 100 times.
His paper “Triple Negative Breast Cancer: Clinical Features and Patterns of Recurrence” is the most highly cited breast cancer paper to come from Canada. PMID: 17671126
In 2024, he was elected to the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
MD, University of British Columbia, 1979
- Canadian Medical Hall of Fame (2024)
- UBC Alumni Excellence in Research Award (2023)
- Royal Society of Canada Mclaughlin Medal (2023)
- Lifetime Achievement Award, Canadian Society for Epidemiology and Biostatistics (2019)
- Killam Prize, Health Sciences – Canada Council of the Arts (2016)
- Basser Global Prize (2016)
- Adjunct Professor (Honorary), Medical University of Vienna (2016)
- Karen Campbell Award, Ovarian Cancer Canada (2014)
- Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013)
- Champion of Genetics, Canadian Gene Cure Foundation (2013)
- O. Harold Warwick Prize, Canadian Cancer Society (2013)
- Fellow, Royal Society of Canada (2012)
- FORCE – Spirit of Empowerment Award (2012)
- Honorary PhD, Pomeranian University of Medicine, Poland (2011)
- World’s Most Cited Researcher in Breast Cancer (2005)
- Breast Cancer
- Ovarian Cancer
- Cancer Genetics