Dr Helen Hanson

About me:

Dr Helen Hanson holds an NIHR Senior Investigator Fellowship at the Exeter NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and is a Consultant in Cancer Genetics at the Peninsula Regional Genetics Service at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Exeter, UK.

Helen qualified in medicine in 2002 from Guy’s, Kings and St Thomas’ Medical School, London. She completed her Clinical Genetics Training at St. George’s Hospital and Guy’s Hospital and has previously been a Consultant at the Royal Marsden and St. George’s Hospital in London, before taking up her current post in September 2023. Helen was awarded an MD (Res) in 2011 for her thesis “Characterisation of the prevalence, penetrance and phenotype of constitutional TP53 mutations in breast cancer” undertaken at The Institute of Cancer Research, London and has a continued interest in TP53 and Li-Fraumeni syndrome.

Helen’s main research interest is improving the clinical care of individuals with rare inherited genetic predisposition to cancer. She has colloborated nationally and internationally in the development and implementation of clinical guidelines.

Helen's work focuses on how to improve clinical care for patients with an inherited predispoition to cancer, bringing together national and international experts and patients to colloboratively develop best practice guidelines to address the gap between gene discovery and clinical care. Through her BRC role, she will continue and expand work from the CanGene-CanVar project, a 5-year £4.3 million Cancer Research UK catalyst award-funded programme (https://www.cangene-canvaruk.org).

• BSc Hons (Molecular Medicine and Genetics, King’s College, London)
• MBBS (Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ Medical School, London)
• FRCP (Royal College of Physicians, London)
• MD (Res) (Institute of Cancer Research, London)
• Specialist register (CCT) Clinical Genetics