Dr. May Lynn Quan | Taking Breast Cancer Research to New Life-Changing Levels

“I never thought I would be a surgeon,” shares Dr. Quan. “In fact, I took my first clerkship rotation in general surgery to get it over with.”

It was a slow Saturday morning in the operating room with not much happening except a plastic surgery case.

“I watched as the plastic surgeon marked a line on the patient’s arm,” says Dr. Quan. “He then turned to me, gave me the knife and told me to make the incision. After that, I was hooked.”

Dr. Quan quickly made adjustments to her electives to focus on surgery after the fateful morning that changed the trajectory of her career and life.

Born and raised in Ontario, Dr. Quan first started her medical journey at McMaster University and first came to Calgary for her General Surgery Residency. As an active hiker, skier, snowboarder and cyclist, she fell in love with the city.

“Calgary is such an enterprising and open-minded city,” shares Dr. Quan. “The people, the mountains and the active lifestyle were the perfect fit for me.”

It wouldn’t be until 2009 that Dr. Quan would officially move to Calgary for an exciting new opportunity at the Foothills Medical Centre.

Initially, Dr. Quan was working in Toronto at the Sunnybrook & Women’s College Hospital where the second major turning point came in her life.

“I had a breast cancer patient who was only 29 when the average age of patients diagnosed is 55,” says Dr. Quan. “This spurred my interest in breast cancer outcomes in young woman, especially since there was such limited information available for this age group at the time.”

Research became a major focus for Dr. Quan, and she received a grant from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (which is now part of the Canadian Cancer Society) to evaluate outcomes in young women from across Ontario to see if there is a measurable difference between those that are treated with a mastectomy, compared to a lumpectomy.

In 2015, Dr. Quan along with Dr. Steven Narod from Women’s College Hospital in Toronto applied for and received a 5.7 million dollar grant from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The grant targets research on breast cancer in young women, also known as the RUBY study. The pan-Canadian study has a network of over 30 breast health clinics recruiting 1200 participants aged 40 and under. To date, the study has enrolled almost 800 young women who have agreed to share their experiences, outcomes, blood and tissue with a goal of improving outcomes.

“The RUBY study aims to specifically understand the unique issues experienced by young women with breast cancer, taking into account the patient’s perspective in addition to their disease process,” says Dr. Quan. “Already we are discovering so much about what supports better delivery of care for younger breast cancer patients.”

Dr. Quan also received a 5 million dollar donation from a community philanthropist that funded the creation of the Calgary Breast Cancer Research Program. The mandate of the program is to improve outcomes for women with breast cancer across a spectrum of approaches from bench to bedside, allowing Dr. Quan to collaborate with basic, translational and health services scientists from the Charbonneau and O’Brien institutes at the Cumming School of Medicine.

Dr. Quan’s grand vision to improve outcomes for women battling breast cancer doesn’t stop at research.

“Dr. Chen Fong and I had a vision of a standalone comprehensive breast centre where women were treated from diagnosis to survivorship with a patient centred multidisciplinary approach,” shares Dr. Quan. “The concept and planning for the facility was ultimately integrated into plans for a Comprehensive Breast Centre within the new Calgary Cancer Centre.”

Through collaboration with philanthropists, physicians and the community, the purpose-built breast centre will treat women with breast health issues, cancer and beyond. Dr. Quan’s dream is to incorporate research into the clinical care pathway, implementing findings directly into patient care as one of the core principles of the centre.

Dr. Quan’s passion for helping breast cancer patients is relentless. She has helped fast-track treatments for women with the disease across the province by cutting down weeks of waiting with process improvements. On top of that, she is a founding member of the Alberta Cancer Outcomes Network, a network of cancer-focused health services researchers from across the province, who work together to identify new ways to provide better access to cancer care.

“I am forever grateful for my career and the different ways I can improve care for women in Alberta. I have the chance to treat women one-on-one through my practice and with my research I can help improve the care provided to women provincially,” shares Dr. Quan. “That is the most rewarding part of what I do.”

Dr. May Lynn Quan BSc (Waterloo, 1995), MD (McMaster, 1997), MSc (Calgary, 2005) Associate Professor of Surgery, Oncology and Community Health Studies in the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. Medical Director, Calgary Breast Health Program. Scientific Director, Calgary Breast Cancer Surgery Research Program, University of Calgary.