Professional background

Dr Mary Falzon has been a consultant in histology and cytology for 30 years, working for 10 years at Ealing Hospital and 20 years at UCLH.

She qualified from the Middlesex Hospital medical school in London in 1981 and after posts in various medical and surgical specialities, she started her training in cellular pathology as an assistant lecturer at the Middlesex hospital and then as a lecturer at UCLH before taking up her consultant posts.

Dr Falzon has a special interest in breast and lung pathology and participates in both cervical and diagnostic cytology rotas. Mary collaborates in various research projects in both breast and lung and has published papers with her collaborators. She has written chapters in diagnostic cytology, molecular processes in breast pathology and on Her-2 testing.

Mary is the clinical director for pathology at UCLH, an associate clinical professor at UCL, an associate responsible officer at UCLH and the designated individual for the HTA for the postmortem service.

Research interests

Lung and breast cancer

Publications

1. Tung KT, Woolf A, Falzon M. Prostatic involvement in Wegener’s Granulomatosis. Postgrad Med J (1987);63:53 54.
2. Vaira D, Holton J, Cairns S, Falzon M, Salmon PR. 4 Hour Rapid Urease Test (RUT) for the Detection of Campylobacter Pylori (CP): is it reliable enough to start therapy? J Clin Pathol, 1988; 41:355 56.
3. Costa DC, Glynne Jones R, Falzon M, Lui D, Ryder JP, Ell P J. 99Tcm Pentavalent DMSA Imaging Detects Metastases of Poorly Differentiated Carcinoma of the Thyroid. Clin Nuc Med, (1989); 14:218 221.
4. Vaira D, Holton J, Falzon M, Polydorou A, Cairns SR, Dowset JF, Salmon PR. Decreased Antibody Titres to Campylobacter Pylori (CP) After Treatment of Gastritis. BMJ, (1988); 6th Aug:297.
5. Vaira D, Holton J, Cairns SR, Falzon M, Polydorou A, Dowsett JF, Salmon PR. Urease Tests for Campylobacter Pylori (CP): care in Interpretation. J Clin Pathol,(1988); 41:812 813.
6. Vaira D, Holton J, Falzon M, Cairns SR, Dowsett J, Polydorou A, Salmon PK. Investigation of Campylobacter pylori Associated Gastritis by Histology, Culture, Urease Tests, Brushings and Antibody Level. Italian Journal of Pathology, (1988); 20:299 304.
7. Falzon M, Isaacson PG. Histological Classification of the Non Hodgkin’s Lymphomas. Blood Reviews, (1990); 4:111 115.
8. Vaira D, Holton J, Osborne J, Falzon M, D’Anna L, Romanos A, McNeil I. Endoscopy in Dyspeptic Patients: Is Gastric Mucosal Biopsy Useful? American Journal of Gastroenterology.(1990); 85; 6:701-704.
9. Sagar SM, Karp SJ, Falzon M. Malignant Lymphomatous Polyposis: Diagnosis and Response to Chemotherapy. Clinical Oncology.(1990); 2:230-234.
10. Falzon M, Isaacson PG. The natural history of Benign Lympho epithelial lesion of the salivary gland in which there is a monoclonal population of B cells. A report of two cases. Am J Surg Path. (1991); 15(1):59-65.
11. Wotherspoon AC, Ortiz-Hidalgo C, Falzon M, Isaacson PG. Helicobacter pylori-associated gastritis and primary B-cell gastric lymphoma. Lancet. (1991); 338: 1175-76.
12. Hampson SJ, Fowlis GF, Chapple CR, Falzon M and Worth PH. Extra-Renal adult Wilm’s Tumour: Presentation, Diagnosis and Management. Br J Urol. (1992)
13. Gelister JSK, Falzon M, Crawford R, Chapple CR and Hendry WF. Urinary Tract Metastasis from Renal Carcinoma. Br J Urol. (1992); 69:250-252.
14. Hampson SJ, Falzon M and Cowie AG. Intestinal Metaplasia of the Bladder: Implications for Management. Br J Urol. (1992); 69:323-324.
15. Varia D, Holton J, Ainley C, Falzon M, Osborne J, Romanos A, Chandrakumaran K, McNeil I. Double Blind Trial of Colloidal Bismuth Subcitrate vs Placebo in Helicobacter Pylori positive patients with non ulcer dyspepsia. Ital-J Gastro-enterol, 1992. Sept. 24 (7):400-4.
16. Smith DJ, Hamdy FC, Falzon M, Evans JWH and Chapple CR. Paget’s Disease of the Glans Penis: An Unusual Urological Malignancy. European Urology (1994); 25:316-319
17. Leung HY, Cooper S, Razak AH, Falzon M, Abel P. Ureteric filling defect. Postgrad Med J 1996;72:
18. W Svensson, P Forouhi, J Lynn and Falzon M. Differences of vascular pattern demonstrated by colour Doppler ultrasound allows differentiation of fibroadenomas from cancers. The European Journal of Ultrasound 1999
19. Satoh F. Beak SA. Small CJ. Falzon M. Ghatei MA. Bloom SR. Smith DM. Characterization of human and rat glucagon-like peptide-1 receptors in the neurointermediate lobe: lack of coupling to either stimulation or inhibition of adenylyl cyclase. Endocrinology. 141(4):1301-9, 2000 Apr.
20. S Iqbal, M Falzon, R T Mathie, R C N Williamson and A K Kakkar. Thrombomodulin Expression of Primary Breast Cancer Tissue is a Predictor of Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis. Thrombosis and Haemostasis 1999; 833-834
21. Vaidya JS, Hall-Craggs MA, Baum M, Tobias JS, Falzon M, D’Souza DP, Morgan S Percutaneous Minimally Invasive Stereotactic Primary Radiotherapy. Lancet Oncology3(4) 252-3, 2002
22. AC Lee, DW Chicken, CDO Pickard, GM Briggs, G Kocjan, M Falzon, I Bigio, PJ Ell, JR Sainsbury, MRS Keshtgar and SG Bown. Comparative study of Elastic Scattering Spectroscopy and touch print cytology in assessing Sentinel Lymph Node status in Breast Cancer. British Journal of Surgery 90:112-112, 2003
23. al-Adnani M, Etessami N, Freeman A, Falzon M. Why abolish C3? Cytopathology 2003,14 ,302-4
24. D Ravichandra, G Kocjan, M Falzon, RY Ball, DNL Ralphs . Imprint cytology of the sentinel lymph node in the assessment of axillary node status in breast carcinoma. European Journal of Oncology (2004) 30, 238-242
25. Kristie S Johnson, Dennis W Chicken, David CO Pickard, Andrew C Lee, Gavin Briggs, Mary Falzon, Irving J Bigio, Mohammed R Keshtgar and Stephen G Bown. Elastic Scattering for intraoperative determination of sentinel lymph Node Status in the Breast. Journal of Biomedical Optics (96 ) 2004 Nov-Dec;9(6):1122-8
26. DW Chicken, G Kocjan, M, M Falzon, AC Lee,M.Douek, JR Sainsbury and MRS Keshtgar. Intra-Operative touch imprint cytology for the diagnosis of Sentinel Lymph Node metastases in Breast Cancer. British Journal of Surgery 2006;93: 572-576-----Original Article
27. Lai CS, Boshoff C, Falzon M, Lee SM. Complete Response to Erlotinib Treatment in Brain Metastases from Recurrent Non Small Cell Lung Cancer. Thorax. 2006 Jan;61(1):91
28. Jeremy George P, Banerjee,AK, Read CA, O’ Sullivan C, Falzon M, Pezzella F, Nicholson AG, Shaw P, Laurent G, Rabbitts PH. Surveillance for detection of early lung cancer in patients with bronchial dysplasia. Accepted Thorax.2007 Jan, 62(1) 43-50 Original Paper
29. Goodman, Anna, Falzon Mary, Gelder Colin and George, Jeremy. Central airway obstruction by a peripheral hamartoma. Lung Cancer 2007, Apr 27
30. Joanna C Porter, Mary Falzon and Adam Hall. Polarised Localisation of Epithelial CXCL11 in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Mechanisms of T Cell Egression. The Journal of Immunology 2008, 180: 1866-1877
31. Anindo K Banerjee, Catherine M Read, Mary Falzon, Andrew Nicholson, P Jeremy George, Pamela Rabbitts An observational study of the histological and bronchoscopic evolution of pre invasive lesions of the bronchus
32. M Loddo, SR Kingsbury, M Rashid, I Proctor, C Holt, J Young, S EL-Sheikh, M Falzon, K.L Eward, T Prevos, R Sainsbury, K Stoeber and GH Williams. Cell-Cycle-phase progression analysis identifies unique phenotypes of major prognostic and predictive significance in breast cancer. Accepted by Br J Cancer 2009 Mar 24;100(6):959-70
33. Mohammed RS Keshtgar, D. Wayne chicken, Martin R Austwick, Benjamin Clark, Santosh K Somasundaram. Kristie Johnson, Charles A Mosse, Mary Falzon, Gabrijela Kocjan, Ying Zhu, Tom Fearn, Irving J Bigio, Stephen G Bown. A Novel Optical Scanner for Rapid Intraoperative Diagnosis of Sentinel Node Metastases in Breast Cancer. Lancet Oncology (2009)
34. Keshtgar M, Davidson T, Pigott K, Falzon M, Jones A. Current Status and Advances in Management of Early Breast Cancer. Int J surg 2010; 8(3): 199-202
35. Frank McCaughan, Jessica CM Pole, Alan T Bankier, Bernard A Konfortov, Bernardette Carroll. Mary Falzon, Terence H Rabbitts, P.Jeremy George, Paul H Dear and Pamela H Rabbitts. Progressive 3q amplification consistently targets SOX2 in preinvasive Squamous lung cancer. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2010 Mar 18
36. Neal Navani, Helen L Booth, Gabrijela Kocjan, Mary Falzon, Arrigo Capitanio, Jim M Brown, Joanna C Porter, Sam M Janes. Combining endobronchial ultrasound guided transbronchial needle aspiratiom with standard bronchoscopic techniques for the diagnosis of stage 1 and 11 pulmonary sarcoidosis. 2010
37. D.Wayne Chicken, Martin R Austwick, SantoshK Somasundraram, Benjamin Clark, Kristie Johnson, Sandy Mosse, Mary Falzon, Ying Zhu, Tom Fearth, Irving J Bigio, Stephen G Bown, Mohammed RS Keshtgar. Scanning Elastic Scattering Spectroscopy detects metastatic breast cancer in sentinel nodes. Journal of Biomedical Optics 2010
38. Jayant S Vaidya, David J Joseph, Jeffrey S Tobias, Max Bulsara, Frederik Wenz, Christobel Saunders, Michael Alvarado, Henrik L Flyger, Samuele Massarut, Wolfgang Eiermann, Mohammed Keshtgar, John Dewar, Uta Kraus-Tiefenbacher, Marc Sütterlin, Laura Esserman, Helle M R Holtveg, Mario Roncadin, Steffi Pigorsch, Marinos Metaxas, Mary Falzon, April Matthews, Tammy Corica, Norman R Williams , Michael Baum “TARGeted Intraoperative radioTherapy Alone versus whole breast radiotherapy for breast cancer (TARGIT-A trial)- results of an international prospective randomised phase III trial” Lancet 2010.
39. Y.Moghaddam, M.Falzon, L.Fulford, N.R.Williams and M.R.Keshtgar. Comparison of three mathematical models for predicting the risk of additional axillary nodal metastases after positive sentinel lymph node biopsy in early breast cancer. BJS 2010.
40. Sara Rodriguez-Acebes, Ian Proctor, Marco Loddo, Alex Wollenschlaeger, Mohammed Rashid, Mary Falzon, A. Toby Prevost, Richard Sainsbury, Gareth H. Williams and Kai Stoeber Targeting DNA replication before it starts: Cdc7 as a therapeutic target in p53-mutant breast cancers AJP 2010
41. Laura-Jane E Smith, Neal Navani, Irfan Kayani Mary Falzon, Sam Janes. Pulmonary puzzles. Pulmonary mass in a 19 year old male. 2011 Thorax, Nov 21,2011
42. Neal Navani, Matthew Nankivell, Ian Woolhouse, Richard N Harrison Mohammed Munavvar, Ute Oltmanns, Mary Falzon, Gabrijela Kocjan, Robert C Rintoul, Sam M Janes. Endobronchial ultrasound guided trans-bronchial needle aspiration for the diagnosis of intra-thoracic lymphadenopathy in patients with extra-thoracic malignancy: A multi-centre study. JTO, volume 6, number 9, Sept 2011
43. Liwen Lu, Vitor Teixeira, Andrew Nicholson, Mary Falzon, Bernardette Carroll, Fiona Watt, Jeremy George, Kim Jensen, Adam Giangreco, Sam Janes. LRIG1 regulates cadherin-dependent contact infibition directing epithelial haemostasis and preinvasive squamous cell carcinoma development. JCI 2011
44. Tweddle A, Davies SJ, Topping W, Whitehorn J, Falzon M, Miller RF. Nodal crytococcal immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome masquerading as tuberculosis in an HIV infected patient. Int J STD Aids 2012 Mar,23(3): 216-8
45. Christodoulos Pipinikas, Theodoros Kyropoulos., Vitor Teixerira, James Brown, Aikaterini Varanou, Mary Falzon, Arrigo Capitanio, Stephen Bottoms, Bernardette Carroll, Neal Navani, Frank McCaughan, Jeremy George, Adam Giangreco, Nicholas Wright, Stuart McDonald, Trevor Graham, Sam Janes: Tracheal carcinoma in-situ derives from distal lesions after cell migration rather than clonal expansion. JC1 2012
46. Neal Navani1,2, David R. Lawrence3, Shyam Kolvekar3, Martin Hayward3, Dorcas McAsey3,Gabrijela Kocjan4, Mary Falzon, Arrigo Capitanio4, Penny Shaw5, Stephen Morris6,Rumana Z. Omar7, and Sam M. Janes1,2; on behalf of the REMEDY Trial Investigators. Endobronchial Ultrasound–guided Transbronchial Needle Aspiration Prevents Mediastinoscopies in the Diagnosis of Isolated Mediastinal Lymphadenopathy. A Prospective Trial. Am J Respir Crit Care Med Vol 186, Iss. 3, pp 255–260, Aug 1, 2012
47. Liwen Lu, Vitor H Teixeira, ZhengQuiang Yuan, Trevor A Graham, David Endesfeldwe, Krishna Kolluri, Noura Al-Juffali, Nicholas J Hamilton, Andrew Nicholson, Mary Falzon, Maik Kschischo, Charles Swanton, Nicholas A Wright, Bernardette Carroll, Fiona M Watt, Jeremy George, Kim B Jensen, Adam Giangreco, Sam Janes. LRG1 regulates cadherin-dependent contact inhibition directing epithelial homeostasis and preinvasive squamous cell carcinoma development. Journal of Pathology 2012
48. Vitor H Teixeira, Parthiban Nadarajan, Trevor A Graham, Christodoulos P Pipinikas, James M Brown, Mary Falzon, Emma Nye, Richard Poulsom, David Lawrence, Nicholas A Wright, Stuart McDonald, Adam Giangreco, Benjamin D Simons, Sam M Janes. Stochastic homeostasis in human airway epithelium is achieved by neutral competition of basal cell progenitors. E-Life 22 October 2013
49. Jayant S Vaidya, Frederik Wenz, Max Bulsara, Jeff rey S Tobias, David J Joseph, Mohammed Keshtgar, Henrik L Flyger, Samuele Massarut, Michael Alvarado, Christobel Saunders, Wolfgang Eiermann, Marinos Metaxas, Elena Sperk, Marc Sütterlin, Douglas Brown, Laura Esserman, Mario Roncadin, Alastair Thompson, John A Dewar, Helle M R Holtveg, Steffi Pigorsch, Mary Falzon, Eleanor Harris, April Matthews,Chris Brew-Graves, Ingrid Potyka, Tammy Corica, Norman R Williams, Michael Baum, on behalf of the TARGIT trialists’ group
Risk-adapted targeted intraoperative radiotherapy versus whole-breast radiotherapy for breast cancer: 5-year results for local control and overall survival from the TARGIT-A randomised trial Lancet 15 February, 2014
50. Woo WL, Panagiotopoulos N, Gvinianidze L, Fhadil S, Borg E, Falzon M, Lawrence D. Primary synovial sarcoma of the lung: can haemothorax be the first manifestation? J Thorac Dis 2014;6(12):E249-E251. doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2014.11.01