Surgery Websites
General Surgery »  Faculty »  Breast Care Surgery »  Laura J. Esserman, M.D., M.B.A.
Laura J. Esserman, M.D., M.B.A.

Laura J. Esserman, M.D., M.B.A.

  • Professor of Surgery and Radiology
  • Division of Surgical Oncology
  • Chief, Section of Breast Care Surgery
  • Alfred A. de Lorimier Endowed Chair in General Surgery
  • Director, UCSF Breast Care Center

Contact Information

(415) 885-7691
[email protected]
Open Popup

1974-77, Harvard University, A.B.
1978-83, Stanford University, M.D.

  • 1983-85, Stanford University School of Medicine, Resident, General Surgery
  • 1988-90, Stanford University School of Medicine, Resident, General Surgery
  • 1990-91, Stanford University School of Medicine, Chief Resident, General Surgery
  • 1985-88, Stanford University School of Medicine, Postdoctoral Fe, Oncology, Medical
  • 1991-93, Stanford University, M.B.A.
  • American Board of Surgery - General Surgery - 1992
  • UCSF Center of Excellence for Breast Cancer Care
  • UCSF Breast Care Center
  • UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center
  • Breast Diseases
  • Breast Neoplasms
  • Cancer Vaccines
  • Genes
  • Intraductal Carcinoma
  • Male
  • Mammary
  • Mastectomy
  • Noninfiltrating Carcinoma Lobular
  • Oncogenes
  • Precancerous Conditions
  • Segmental
  • Tumor Suppressor
  • Ultrasonography
  • BRCA1 Protein
  • BRCA2 Protein
  • Infiltrating Duct Carcinoma

 

Dr. Laura Esserman, M.D., M.B.A is a surgeon and breast cancer oncology specialist practicing at the UCSF Breast Care Center where she has also held the position of Director since 1996.  She co-leads the Breast Oncology Program, the largest of the UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center's multidisciplinary programs. The program is comprised of 69 faculty members who represent 16 academic specialties and is internationally recognized and well-established with major initiatives in epidemiology, genetics, biology, therapeutics, and clinical cancer care.  She is a professor of Surgery & Radiology at UCSF and Associate Director of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center where she has founded and led the program in Translational Informatics. As part of this program, her research has focused on bioinformatics, medical and clinical informatics, systems integration, and clinical care delivery.

 

Dr. Esserman received her Bachelor's degree in History of Science from Harvard University and completed her M.D. at Stanford University. She completed her surgery residency and oncology fellowship at Stanford University Medical Center.  After her training, she joined the faculty at Stanford and received a Hartford fellowship to attend Stanford Business School where she received her M.B.A. in 1993.  She then joined the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco.  She has worked at UCSF to develop interdisciplinary teams of clinicians and researchers to bring the best care to patients and find the best platform to integrate translational research and improve the delivery of breast cancer care.

 

Dr. Esserman has been a leader in the I-SPY TRIAL collaboration, a National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Center for Bioinformatics and SPORE program. In 2005, she received the NCI SPORE Investigator of the Year Award, an internationally recognized honor and designation.  As the Primary Investigator of a Department of Defense-funded Center of Excellence grant, she has also brought together an extraordinary, multidisciplinary group of investigators and health care industry partners to work on critical problems concerning the quality of breast cancer care. Highly respected by her peers, Dr. Esserman was named to the list of U.S. News "America's Top Doctors," a distinction reserved for the top 1% of physicians in the nation for a given specialty.

 

Dr. Esserman is a prolific writer with numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals covering all aspects of breast health including information systems, immunology, decision making, health policy and the use of imaging. She speaks extensively at public and private forums within the U.S. and internationally.  Overall, Dr. Esserman's research and writing tends to focus on the goal of giving patients better access to accurate information so that they can become partners in their health care.

Translational Co-Lead: Dr. Laura Esserman, is internationally recognized for her leadership of the ground-breaking I-SPY2 clinical trial and as an advocate for de-escalation of treatment for DCIS, and the initiation of the virtual preference pragmatic personalized screening trial (WISDOM) seeking to personalize the approach to screening. Her work in breast cancer spans the spectrum from public policy issues to basic science and the impact of both on the delivery of clinical care. Dr. Esserman has mentored 36 post-doctoral or clinical fellows during her career. She developed and runs a post-baccalaureate program that has trained 123 students over the past 15 years, most of whom have gone on to careers in medicine.

Dr. Esserman's broad research interests provide exceptional opportunities for multidisciplinary training across the three themes, through clinical trials and biomarker studies on screening, prevention and treatment of breast cancer, many of which focus on improving healthcare value. Another fundamental and scalable effort is the implementation of systems to integrate care and research.

Data provided by UCSF Profiles, powered by CTSI
  • Surgical Oncology Training Grant
    Sponsor:
    Sponsor ID:
    Funding Period:
    Jul 2020
    -
    Jun 2025
    Principal Investigator
  • Extending the Diversity, Reach, and Generalizability of the WISDOM Study
    Sponsor:
    Sponsor ID:
    Funding Period:
    Mar 2020
    -
    Feb 2025
    Principal Investigator
  • I-SPY2 +: Evolving the I-SPY 2 TRIAL to include MRI-directed, adaptive sequential treatment to optimize breast cancer outcomes
    Sponsor:
    Sponsor ID:
    Funding Period:
    Sep 2017
    -
    Aug 2022
    Principal Investigator
  • Elucidating the molecular and contextual basis for IDLE ultralow risk lesions and the tumor immune microenvironment of high risk in situ and invasive breast cancers
    Sponsor:
    Sponsor ID:
    Funding Period:
    Sep 2015
    -
    Aug 2020
    Principal Investigator
  • Modeling the Impact of Targeted Therapy Based on Breast Cancer Subtypes
    Sponsor:
    Sponsor ID:
    Funding Period:
    Sep 2014
    -
    Aug 2019
    Principal Investigator
  • Integrated Biomarkers to Characterize Breast Cancer Risk
    Sponsor:
    Sponsor ID:
    Funding Period:
    Sep 2004
    -
    Jun 2011
    Principal Investigator
Data provided by UCSF Profiles, powered by CTSI
MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM A TOTAL OF 423
Data provided by UCSF Profiles, powered by CTSI
  1. Umashankar S, Basu A, Esserman L, Van't Veer L, Melisko ME. Concordance between patient-reported and physician-documented comorbidities and symptoms among Stage 4 breast cancer patients. Cancer Med. 2023 Oct 30. View in PubMed
  2. Rothschild HT, Clelland EN, Abel MK, Chien AJ, Shui AM, Esserman L, Khan SA, Mukhtar RA. The impact of histologic subtype on primary site surgery in the management of metastatic lobular versus ductal breast cancer: a population based study from the National Cancer Database (NCDB). Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2023 Oct 13. View in PubMed
  3. Boughey JC, Yu H, Dugan CL, Piltin MA, Postlewait L, Son JD, Edmiston KK, Godellas C, Lee MC, Carr MJ, Tonneson JE, Crown A, Lancaster RB, Woriax HE, Ewing CA, Chau HS, Patterson AK, Wong JM, Alvarado MD, Yang RL, Chan TW, Sheade JB, Ahrendt GM, Larson KE, Switalla K, Tuttle TM, Tchou JC, Rao R, Tamirisa N, Singh P, Gould RE, Terando A, Sauder C, Hewitt K, Chiba A, Esserman LJ, Mukhtar R. ASO Visual Abstract: Changes in Surgical Management of the Axilla Over 11 Years-Report on Over 1500 Breast Cancer Patients Treated with Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy on the Prospective I-SPY2 Trial. Ann Surg Oncol. 2023 10; 30(11):6411-6412. View in PubMed
  4. Rothschild HT, Clelland EN, Mujir F, Record H, Wong J, Esserman LJ, Alvarado M, Ewing C, Mukhtar RA. ASO Visual Abstract: Predictors of Early Versus Late Recurrence in Invasive Lobular Carcinoma of the Breast: Impact of Local and Systemic Therapy. Ann Surg Oncol. 2023 Oct; 30(10):6007. View in PubMed
  5. Ho KKY, Kaiser UB, Chanson P, Gadelha M, Wass J, Nieman L, Little A, Aghi MK, Raetzman L, Post K, Raverot G, Borowsky AD, Erickson D, Castaño JP, Laws ER, Zatelli MC, Sisco J, Esserman L, Yuen KCJ, Reincke M, Melmed S. Pituitary adenoma or neuroendocrine tumour: the need for an integrated prognostic classification. Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2023 Nov; 19(11):671-678. View in PubMed
  6. View All Publications

 

Site Directory
    X