Lesley Taylor, M.D.

Lesley Taylor, M.D. is a breast surgical oncologist at City of Hope who has had the privilege to work on various global health initiatives to improve breast cancer diagnosis and treatment in Ethiopia for 12 years.

Her interest in global breast oncology began during surgical training when she received funding from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2009 for a project to deliver breast care in a remote village in Ecuador. Dr. Taylor was then recruited to work on building capacity for breast oncology in Ethiopia, serving as co-director and key collaborator of an award from the Roche African Research Foundation titled, “Initiative to Enhance Cancer Care in Ethiopia, the Einstein-Ethiopian Collaboration.” 

Dr. Taylor has conducted research, organized the Ethiopian National Oncology conferences and designed and implemented a pilot program for one of the country’s first de-centralized centers for breast cancer patients in Hawassa, Ethiopia from 2013 to 2016. For 12 years, Dr. Taylor has mentored medical students, business students, surgical fellows and 17 Ethiopian graduate students in breast cancer research in Ethiopia. She was co-program director for the Susan G. Komen Graduate Training Program in Disparities Research for Ethiopian students. 

She collaborated with ASCO to design the “Cancer Control for Primary Care” course for the medical school in Gondar and the nursing school in Hawassa, Ethiopia. She is currently faculty on two German awards to build oncology capacity and train Ethiopian Ph.D. candidates in Epidemiology. For the last two years, Dr. Taylor has developed a mentorship program to support the research of 5-6 nursing graduate students with their Master’s thesis, focusing on oncology research. 

Dr. Taylor collaborates with faculty from COH and Hawassa University Comprehensive and Specialized Referral Hospital (HUCSRH) to develop oncology research capacity, patient advocacy, and pathology services in a program called the COH-Ethiopia Breast Cancer Initiative. Dr. Taylor collaborates with faculty to develop a train-the-trainer nursing education program called "Comprehensive Oncology Nurse Training" for providers in Africa. Dr. Taylor developed a film with faculty titled, "Breast Examination Instruction: Teaching Providers How to Perform a Clinical Breast Exam" which has been viewed by over Nigerian midwives and primary care providers in Nigeria and Ethiopia. Dr. Taylor has partnered with pathologists from Africa and COH to create a comprehensive training program "Pathology Training Project in Africa" with over 100 participants from nine sub-Saharan African countries. Dr. Taylor and pathologists from Ethiopia and COH received an award from the College of American Pathologists in 2023, “Improving Breast Cancer Treatment Through Surgical-Pathology Education in Africa." Dr. Taylor currently serves as a Technical Consultant on the WHO Global Breast Cancer Initiative Working Group 3, "Breast Cancer Treatment and Supportive Care." Dr. Taylor's work with COH teams has been recognized by the Biden Administration as aligning with Cancer Moonshot Priorities.

Download this pdf to learn more about Dr. Taylor's research in Ethiopia

• Rosa, W. E., Lumati, J. S., Alatise, O. I., Namisango, E., Bogale, N., Pérez-Cruz, P. E., Rajagopal, M. R., Taylor, L., & Kingham, T. P. (2023). Surgery: a crucial ally for universal palliative care access. The Lancet. Global health, 11(5), e650–e652. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(23)00066-9
• Aynalem, A., Abdella Muhammed, J., Taylor, L., Unverzagt, S., Kroeber, E. S., Deribe, B., & Fetene, D. (2023). Utilization of palliative care and its associated factors among adult cancer patients in Hawassa University comprehensive specialized hospital oncology center, Hawassa, Ethiopia, 2021: a cross-sectional study. Current medical research and opinion, 39(6), 911–917. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007995.2023.2211915
• Trabitzsch, J., Wondimagegnehu, A., Afework, T., Stoeter, O., Gizaw, M., Getachew, S., Feyisa, J. D., Taylor, L., Wienke, A., Addissie, A., & Kantelhardt, E. J. (2023). Pathways and Referral of Patients with Cancer in Rural Ethiopia: A Multi-center Retrospective Cohort Study. The oncologist, 28(6), e359–e368. https://doi.org/10.1093/oncolo/oyad032
• Shita, A., Yalew, A. W., Seife, E., Afework, T., Tesfaw, A., Gufue, Z. H., Rabe, F., Taylor, L., Kantelhardt, E. J., & Getachew, S. (2023). Survival and predictors of breast cancer mortality in South Ethiopia: A retrospective cohort study. PloS one, 18(3), e0282746. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282746
• Desalegn, Z., Yohannes, M., Porsch, M., Stückrath, K., Anberber, E., Santos, P., Bauer, M., Addissie, A., Bekuretsion, Y., Assefa, M., Worku, Y., Taylor, L., Abebe, T., Kantelhardt, E. J., & Vetter, M. (2022). Intrinsic subtypes in Ethiopian breast cancer patient. Breast cancer research and treatment, 196(3), 495–504. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-022-06769-z
• Getachew, S., Addissie, A., Seife, E., Wakuma, T., Unverzagt, S., Jemal, A., Taylor, L., Wienke, A., & Kantelhardt, E. J. (2022). Breast Nurse Intervention to Improve Adherence to Endocrine Therapy Among Breast Cancer Patients in South Ethiopia. The oncologist, 27(8), e650–e660. https://doi.org/10.1093/oncolo/oyac081
• Fahradyan A, Liu A, Taylor L., Jones V, Li WY. Short Stay Management of Locally Advanced Breast Cancer Using Immediate Local Thoracoabdominal Advancement Flap and Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Protocol. Annals of Plastic Surgery. 2022 May 1;88(4):S366-73.
• Taylor L., Schmolze D, Graef K, Setiawan L, Alem AT. Nature Portfolio Cancer Community [Internet]. Odedina B, editor. New York, NY: Springer Nature. 2022. [cited 2022 May 10, 2022]. Available from: https://go.nature.com/3vsm8Jy.
• Ayele, W., Führer, A., Braun, G. A., Formazin, F., Wienke, A., Taylor, L., Unverzagt, S., Addissie, A., & Kantelhardt, E. J. (2022). Breast cancer morbidity and mortality in rural Ethiopia: data from 788 verbal autopsies. BMC women's health, 22(1), 89. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-022-01672-7
• Tesfaw A, Getachew S, Addissie A, Jemal A, Wienke A, Taylor L., Kantelhardt E. (2021) Late-stage diagnosis and associated factors among breast cancer patients in south and southwest Ethiopia: A multicenter study. Clinical Breast Cancer, 21(1): e112-e9. PubMed PMID:33536135
• Ayele, W., Addissie, A., Wienke, A., Unverzagt, S., Jemal, A., Taylor, L., & Kantelhardt, E. J. (2021). Breast Awareness, Self-Reported Abnormalities, and Breast Cancer in Rural Ethiopia: A Survey of 7,573 Women and Predictions of the National Burden. The oncologist, 26(6), e1009–e1017. https://doi.org/10.1002/onco.13737
• Getachew, S., Tesfaw, A., Kaba, M., Wienke, A., Taylor, L., Kantelhardt, E. J., & Addissie, A. (2020). Perceived barriers to early diagnosis of breast Cancer in south and southwestern Ethiopia: a qualitative study. BMC women's health, 20(1), 38. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-020-00909-7
• Getachew, S., Tesfaw, A., Kaba, M., Wienke, A., Taylor, L., Kantelhardt, E. J., & Addissie, A. (2020). Perceived barriers to early diagnosis of breast Cancer in south and southwestern Ethiopia: a qualitative study. BMC women's health, 20(1), 38. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-020-00909-7

To view a full of list of Lesley Taylor's publications, please click to view NCBI publications.