Mr Brendan Smith

Brendan Smith is a highly trained and dedicated consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon with over 18 years of consultant specialist practice. This wealth of experience has resulted in leading expertise across the field of oncoplastic breast surgery, such as breast reconstruction, breast cancer, breast reduction, breast augmentation, benign breast diseases and revisional breast surgery.

He has an extremely strong background in teaching and training breast reconstruction techniques to those in training and consultant professionals also. He has been a course director for the level 2 Oncoplastic Breast Reconstruction Surgery course at the Royal College of Surgeons and Association of Breast Surgery of the UK and Ireland Since 2011. He is also joint course director for the Oxford Oncoplastic Breast Surgery Course, teaching on it since its inception in 2013. He is also a faculty member for the Level 1 Oncoplastic Breast Reconstruction Surgery course formally at the Royal College of Surgeons and now the Association of Breast Surgery of the UK and Ireland.

He qualified in 1991 from Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, completed his college fellowship exams (FRCS Eng) in 1996 and achieved a research fellowship studying the ‘Detection of micrometastases in breast cancer’ gaining a higher Masters of Surgery degree (MS University of London) in 2003. As a dedicated career breast surgeon from this early stage, he gained his senior surgical training through the University of Oxford Surgical rotation in 1996 completing his FRCS exit examination (Gen Surg) in 2004. During senior surgical training in 2003 he succeeded in gaining his first choice preference of one of the first National UK Oncoplastic fellowships at the Christie and South Manchester University Hospitals.

Throughout his career, he has been dedicated to treating his patients using modern and innovative techniques in oncoplastic breast surgery to try and avoid mastectomy, where possible, including therapeutic mammoplasty, lipofilling (fat transfer), partial breast reconstruction using perforator flap techniques and neoadjuvant systemic treatment when necessary.

 He has extensive experience in breast reconstructive techniques using nipple-sparing or skin-sparing mastectomy, pre pectoral and partial sub pectoral ADM breast reconstruction, and autologous and implant-assisted LD flap reconstruction. He also works with an experienced plastic surgeon for patients having DIEP or free TRAM flap breast reconstruction.

He was appointed as the first Oncoplastic Breast surgeon at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in 2004. He set up the oncoplastic breast unit and has continued to develop it introducing new technology and techniques over the last 18 years. He has trained many other practising oncoplastic consultants over that time many of whom now work in the Oxford surgical deanery.

Furthermore, he continues to contribute to his field in the form of research, currently focusing on extending the surgical research portfolio locally.