Dr James Mackay

Dr James Mackay trained as a medical oncologist and is an accredited Consultant Genetic Oncologist with a special interest in cancer genetics in the UK. His clinical interests are cancer genetics, inherited cancer, cancer screening and the introduction of complex genetic tests into clinical cancer care.

Dr Mackay established regional cancer genetics services in East Anglia and North East Thames and developed a remote cancer genetics service, using real time tele-conferencing technology, based in Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Trust.

Dr Mackay was an honorary senior lecturer in the Research Department of Oncology, The Cancer Institute, University College London. He was the clinical principal investigator of an evaluation of regular mammography in women under 50 with a family history of breast cancer funded by the NHS Research and Development Programme, the results of which have now been published. He also initiated the Genetic Breast Cancer Trial, which is a trial of chemotherapy in women with breast cancer, who carry a faulty breast cancer gene, the first randomised trial of chemotherapy based on inherited genetic make-up in the world.

Diseases, Medical Tests and Treatments

• BRCA testing
• Inherited cancer genetic panel testing
• Use of somatic genetic tests to provide further prognostic information
• Cancer genetics
• Family history clinics
• Family cancer risk
• Assessment of indivudual cancer risk