He has been a member of BASO since 1998 and has served on the BASO Council as an Ordinary Member since 2011, as Meetings Secretary from 2015 and was appointed as the Honorary Secretary in 2020.
His commitment to surgical oncology is longstanding and strong. He was appointed as Senior Lecturer in Surgery at University College London (UCL) in 2003, joining the only surgical oncology firm in the UK under the leadership of Professor Irving Taylor (Past-President of BASO and the European Society of Surgical Oncology). In 2009, he moved to King’s College London where he was Professor of Surgical Oncology.
Professor Douek graduated from the University of Dundee (Scotland) and trained in surgery in London, Oxford and Cambridge. He obtained his MD from the University of London in 2000. In 2003, he was awarded a prestigious Health Foundation Clinician Scientist grant by the UK Academy of Medical Sciences, funding his joint Senior Lecturer and Consultant post in breast and general surgery at UCL.
Professor Douek is a breast cancer surgeon and surgical oncologist with a special interest in novel techniques for cancer surgery and in breast reconstruction. He was awarded a Hunterian Professorship by the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2015 and became Research Professor in 2019. He is chief investigator of a number of trials evaluating a magnetic technique for sentinel node biopsy, which he pioneered. These include National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) trials in breast cancer (SentiMAG Multicentre Trial, MagSNOLL Trial) and in melanoma surgery (MELAMAG Multicentre Trial). He setup the first prospective trial of implant breast reconstruction with acellular dermal matrix (ADM), the POBRAD Trial. He is also one of the pioneers of intra-operative radiotherapy (IORT) for breast cancer.
Commenting on his new appointment, Professor Douek said: “I am honoured to help the BASO society and Council meet its challenges and widen its reach."