Charlotte E. Coles PhD, FRCR

Charlotte E. Coles is a Professor of Breast Cancer Clinical Oncology, at the University of Cambridge; NIHR Research Professor, and Director of CRUK RadNet Cambridge. She leads practice-changing breast radiotherapy trials, has influenced international hypofractionation policy, and is addressing global health, gender, and equity challenges within the Lancet Breast Cancer Commission.

Charlotte led the Cambridge Breast IMRT Trial, providing evidence for simple breast IMRT as standard-of-care; and IMPORT Low, showing partial-breast radiotherapy was non-inferior to whole-breast with similar or reduced toxicity. She leads IMPORT High with 5-year results showing efficacy and safety of hypofractionated simultaneous integrated boost. Charlotte is a member of the FAST-Forward Trial Management Group, demonstrating that 1-week is non-inferior to 3-week radiotherapy with similar side effects. These trials have informed NICE guidelines and are internationally practice-changing. She also leads PRIMETIME: biomarker-directed omission of breast radiotherapy; and PARABLE, the first UK breast proton beam therapy trial.

Charlotte facilitated international breast radiotherapy guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic and co-led UK and European Breast Radiotherapy Consensuses, facilitating the equity of access to breast hypofractionation. She was awarded a NIHR Research Professorship and led the Cancer Research UK RadNet Cambridge award to develop a translational research pipeline from basic radiation research through to clinical trials.

She was Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Oncology from 2015-21 and chaired the Lancet Breast Cancer Commission. In 2023, she was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences and awarded the Royal College of Radiologists’ Gold Medal. Charlotte is passionate about implementing patient-centered research through team science and nurturing the next generation of researchers.