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May Lynn Quan

BSc, MD, RCPSC(S)
Pronouns: She/Her

Positions

Professor

Cumming School of Medicine, Department of Surgery | General Surgery

Member

Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute

Contact information

Phone number

Office: 403.944.1709
Susan Isherwood, Program Manager : 403.210.6587

Preferred method of communication

SPHERE Program Manager 

Susan Isherwood

Email: Susan.isherwood@ahs.ca

Phone: (403) 210-6587

We welcome inquiries regarding trainee opportunities. Please reach out to Susan with your CV and goals to see if working with our team is right for you. 

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Research partners

*NEW* SPHERE Research Fellowship 

Accepting applications for a research fellow with opportunities for development of skills in health services, methods focussing on oncology.

Background

Educational Background

B.Sc Hons Kinesiology (Co-op), University of Waterloo, 1995

Doctor of Medicine Medicine, McMaster University, 1997

M.Sc Epidemiology, University of Calgary, 2005

Biography

Dr. May Lynn Quan is a General Surgeon at Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary. Her clinical specialization is breast surgery. She completed her MD at McMaster University, undertook her general surgery residency at the University of Calgary followed by a Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York. Folllowing five years as a surgeon investigator at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, Dr Quan returned to Calgary as a General Surgeon in 2009. She is also active in research, having undertaken a MSc in Epidemiology at the University of Calgary in 2005 and is now an Professor in the Departments of Surgery, Oncology and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. 

Research

Areas of Research

Area of Focus
  • Breast Cancer
  • Health Services
  • Outcomes
Summary of Research

Dr. May Lynn Quan is a health services and clinical researcher in oncology, focusing primarily on delivery of care, quality and outcomes for women with breast cancer.  She is the Scientific Director of SPHERE - Strategies for Precision Health in Breast Cancer, funded through a donation from Arnie Charbonneau to the University of Calgary and grants from CIHR-ICR, the Canadian Cancer Society, Alberta Innovates, the Breast Cancer Society, the Yates Memorial Endowment for Cancer Research and the Medical Services Inc (MSI) Foundation. 

SPHERE supports a core team of scientists, analysts with program management, research assistants and data management with a focus on providing a collaborative research environment for trainees at the undergraduate, graduate, post doctoral,  resident and fellowship levels. Starting in 2024, a research fellowship has been created to further support training of future researchers in breast oncology.

 

Projects

Current Research

Dr. Quan highly values collaborative research. She is currently the co-Principal Investigator on RUBY, a pan-Canadian collaborative project to create a prospective cohort of women 40 years of age and under newly diagnosed with breast cancer in order to help better understand the support needs of these women, along with improving treatment and outcomes. The cohort has collected blood, tissue and patient reported outcomes from diagnosis to 5 years from over 1500 women from 32 sites across Canada. The study is co-funded by the Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR-ICR) and has lead to additional grants supporting the unmet needs of this population through the co-development of SAPPHIRE, an App created with patients to accompany them through their cancer journey funded by a grant from the Alberta Cancer Foundation and the Canadian Cancer Society.

Publications