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Dr Lucy Side

Dr Side is a consultant in clinical genetics who joined the Trust in August 2017.

MB ChB, MRCP(UK), MD

Training and education

  • MB ChB (medical degree) - University of Bristol, 1988
  • Member of the Royal College of Physicians (London) - 1991
  • Medical Research Council clinical training fellowship - University of Oxford, 1998
  • MD - University of Bristol, 2002 (the role of the NF1 gene in paediatric myeloid disorders)
  • CCST in clinical genetics - 2005 (Oxford Deanery)

Experience

Dr Side is a consultant in clinical genetics who joined the Trust in August 2017. Before moving to Southampton, she worked as a consultant and senior lecturer in clinical genetics at Great Ormond Street Hospital and UCL Institute for Women’s Health.

She provides a genetics service for cancer patients and their families in the Wessex region. She carries out regular outreach clinics in Portsmouth, Winchester, Basingstoke and Dorset (Poole). She also runs a monthly clinic in Southampton for children with cancer who may have an underlying genetic condition.

Dr Side has clinical experience in caring for families with a range of genetic conditions, including:

  • hereditary breast, ovarian and bowel cancer
  • the neurofibromatoses (a group of conditions affecting mainly the nervous system and skin)
  • susceptibility to von Hippel-Lindau syndrome (a genetic condition characterized by blood vessel tumours in different areas of the body)
  • susceptibility to kidney cancer
  • tuberous sclerosis (a condition that causes the growth of mainly benign tumours in different parts of the body)
  • a predisposition (tendency) to develop cancer as a child.

In 2015, Dr Side was elected chair of the UK Cancer Genetics Group (CGG), a society of around 350 health professionals with an interest in the hereditary aspects of cancer and the care of families with a cancer predisposition. As CGG chair, she is a member of the UK Medical Genetics Clinical Reference Group, advising on the delivery of genetics services in the UK.

Key achievements

  • Member of the clinical and scientific advisory group of the UK Genetic Testing Network - 2016-present
  • Chair of the UK Cancer Genetics Group - 2015-present
  • Council member of the British Society for Genetic Medicine - 2015-present

Awards and prizes

  • The Lady Tata Memorial Award for Research in Leukaemia - 1996 
  • Melvin M Grumbach Award for Excellence in Pediatric Research - 1998
  • Robin Winter Clinical Genetics Society Young Investigator Award - 2003

Research

Dr Side’s MD research was a study of the neurofibromatosis type 1 gene in childhood leukaemia. At UCL, she developed an interest in the hereditary aspects of ovarian cancer and was a co-investigator on the Cancer Research UK funded PROMISE 2016 programme, looking at genetic testing in predicting the risk of ovarian cancer and how that might be applied to the general population. She is currently looking at the psychological aspects of providing genetic testing as part of the oncology service for women with ovarian cancer. 

She has a research interest in barriers to implementing breast cancer chemoprevention (with colleagues at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine at Queen Mary University of London) and genetic testing/precision medicine in childhood cancer (with colleagues at Great Ormond Street Hospital). She is actively involved in recruiting patients to a number of UK clinical genetics research projects, and is a co-author of over 80 peer reviewed articles.

Dr Side's publications include:

  • Prescribing tamoxifen in primary care for the prevention of breast cancer: a national online survey of GPs' attitudes. Smith SG, Foy R, McGowan JA, Kobayashi LC, DeCensi A, Brown K, Side L, Cuzick J. Br J Gen Pract. 2017 Jun;67(659):e414-e427.
  • Moving towards population-based genetic risk prediction for ovarian cancer. Rahman B, Side L, Gibbon S, Meisel SF, Fraser L, Gessler S, Wardle J, Lanceley A. BJOG. 2017 May;124(6):855-858.
  • Family history and women with ovarian cancer: is it asked and does it matter?: An observational study. Lanceley A, Eagle Z, Ogden G, Gessler S, Razvi K, Ledermann JA, Side L. Int J Gynecol Cancer. 2012 Feb;22(2):254-9.

Contact

You can contact Dr Side by emailing GeneticsTeam@uhs.nhs.uk or by calling 023 8120 6170.