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Allison W. Kurian, M.D., M.Sc.
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Oncology)
Stanford University School of Medicine
akurian@stanford.edu
2008-2011 Cohort
Project Title:  "Breast Cancer Risk Reduction Strategies: Optimizing Their Use by Patients and Physicians"

About the Project:

This study developed an evidence-based, clinical decision support tool to guide women and their physicians in choosing the optimal breast cancer risk-reducing option.

Biosketch:

Allison W. Kurian, M.D., M.Sc. is an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Oncology) and Health Research and Policy (Epidemiology) at Stanford University School of Medicine.  Dr. Kurian earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and then did residency training in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital.  She completed fellowship in Medical Oncology at Stanford University, simultaneously earning a Master’s degree in Epidemiology.  From 2006-2008, she was a research scholar supported by a Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health K12 award from the National Institutes of Health.  Dr. Kurian was also awarded research fellowships from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the California Breast Cancer Research Program, and the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation. 

Dr. Kurian is the Associate Director of the Stanford Clinical Cancer Genetics Program, and devotes her clinical practice to screening, prevention, and treatment of women’s cancers.  Her research focuses on identifying women at increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer, and developing novel strategies and guidelines to improve the outcomes of these high-risk patients.  She takes a multi-disciplinary approach to cancer risk reduction, integrating research methods from epidemiology, clinical trials, and decision analysis.

A major aim of Dr. Kurian’s work is to evaluate the long-term outcomes of different strategies for managing cancer risk, using computer simulation modeling to compare clinically relevant options.  Her Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Physician Faculty Scholars Project was entitled "Breast Cancer Risk-Reduction Strategies: Optimizing Their Use by Physicians and Patients."  Dr. Kurian developed a highly evidence-based model that simulates individual women’s health outcomes, including their probabilities of developing breast and ovarian cancer, along with other competing health risks.  She incorporated the impact of different cancer risk-reduction strategies, such as screening, prophylactic surgery, and chemoprevention.  She translated this model into an internet-based clinical decision support tool, which enables individual women and their physicians to make more informed choices about how best to manage their personal cancer risks. 

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