Professor Ellen Copson

Ellen Copson is Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Southampton and honorary consultant in medical oncology at University Hospital Southampton. Ellen trained in medical oncology in  London and Southampton, receiving her Certificate of Completion of Training in 2009. Following a PhD studying heritable breast cancer, Ellen developed a particular interest in genomic and nutritional factors which influence early breast cancer outcomes. She is lead oncologist of the POSH UK cohort study of young breast cancer patients and of the Southampton based CANDO programme studying  body composition in breast cancer. Ellen was chair of the World Cancer Research Fund Global Cancer Survivorship expert panel between 2021-2025 and continues as an expert advisor for WCRF. She has also acted as co-chair of the NCRI breast cancer working group on lifestyle interventions.   In addition to her own personal research studies Ellen acts as principle investigator for a number national and international observational and interventional clinical trials in early and advanced breast cancer and performs the role of steering group/ trial management group chair for several other national breast cancer studies. She is a member of the UK Breast cancer Clinical Studies Group and  member of the UK Breast Cancer Group Executive Committee.   Ellen has been co-chair of the Wessex Molecular Tumour Board since 2017 and cancer lead of the Central and South Central Genomic Laboratory Hub since  2021. She is oncology lead for Health Education England’s “GeNotes” genomics information resource and is frequently invited to lecture on the clinical utility of genomic testing. Locally, Ellen is oncology lead of the University of Southampton medical degree course.