Catherine M. Kelly

MB BCh BAO, BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD, FRCPI

Professor Catherine M. Kelly is a Consultant Medical Oncologist specialising in breast cancer and Head of Cancer Research at the Mater Private Network, Dublin, and a UCD Clinical Professor.

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She graduated in medicine from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and completed specialist medical oncology training in Ireland and the United Kingdom, including posts at the Royal Marsden Hospital and St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. She subsequently undertook a Fellowship in Breast Medical Oncology at the Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Canada, where she was awarded the Thomas & Edna Naylor Memorial Award for her work on tamoxifen drug interactions.  This was followed by a Susan G. Komen Interdisciplinary Breast Cancer Fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, USA. She holds an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Toronto, and a PhD from RCSI focussing on premenopausal breast cancer. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.

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Professor Kelly led Breast Medical Oncology at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital from 2010 to 2021 and was Medical Director of the Mater Clinical Trials Research Unit from 2017 to 2021.  She chaired the Cancer Trials Ireland Breast Cancer Group (2014–2020) and served two terms on the Board of the National Cancer Registry of Ireland. In 2018 she received the Irish Cancer Society Clinician Leadership Award.

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Her research centres on the neoadjuvant treatment of breast cancer, and endocrine therapy for premenopausal women. She has been Irish Principal Investigator for many pivotal breast cancer trials, as well as a member of several international trial steering committees including DESTINY-Breast11. She is on the faculty of the St Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference, has authored 200 peer-reviewed publications.