Professional background

Mr Massi Cariati is a consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon. His field of expertise is the assessment and management of benign and malignant diseases of the breast. He has a specialised interest in breast cancer management, breast conservation strategies, oncoplastic breast surgery and breast reconstruction, in particular pre- and sub-pectoral immediate implant-based reconstruction with acellular dermal matrix.

Mr Cariati graduated from the University of Florence Medical School summa cum laude at the top of his class. After completing his basic medical training in Italy, he moved to the UK to read for a PhD degree in surgical oncology at the University of Cambridge, with a thesis on breast cancer stem cells. Having obtained his PhD degree he went on to complete his Core Surgical Training with the London School of Surgery, and then his higher surgical training within the London and South-East Thames region which led to the award of his CCT in general surgery with a sub-specialty interest in breast surgery. During this time he spent three years in the Oncoplastic Breast Unit at Guy's and St Thomas' in London, training in oncoplastic and reconstructive breast surgery. He is a fellow of the Royal College of surgeons of England.

During his surgical training, he was awarded the prestigious NIHR Clinical Academic Lectureship in Breast Surgery as well as the Academy of Medical Sciences Starter Grant, which allowed him to develop his research interests within the Department of Research Oncology at King's College London, with a focus on the development of novel intra-operative technologies for the assessment of resection margins in breast conserving surgery, and a parallel interest in the pathophysiology of lymphoedema. His research was recognised with the award of the 2016 Ronald Raven Proferred Prize by the British Association of Surgical Oncology and he has lectured and presented his work nationally and internationally.

Research interests

  • Oncoplastic breast surgery
  • Surgical innovation and technology
  • Window of opportunity studies in breast cancer
  • Lymphoedema

Publications

  • Grootendorst MR, Fitzgerald AJ, Brouwer de Koning SG, Santaolalla A, Portieri A, Van Hemelrijck M, Young MR, Owen J, Cariati M, Pepper M, Wallace VP, Pinder SE, Purushotham A. Use of a handheld Terahertz pulsed imaging device to differentiate benign and malignant breast tissue. Biomed Opt Express. 2017 May 9;8(6):2932-2945.
  • Grootendorst MR, Cariati M, Pinder SE, et al. Intraoperative assessment of tumour resection margins in breast-conserving surgery using 18F-FDG Cerenkov Luminescence Imaging – A first-in-human feasibility study. J Nucl Med. 2017 Jun 58(6): 891-898. pii: jnumed.116.181032.
  • Grootendorst M*, Cariati M*, Kothari A, Tuch D, Purushotham AD. Cerenkov luminescence imaging (CLI) for image guided cancer surgery. Clin Transl Imaging 2016 May 24. Epub ahead of print.
  • Cariati M, Bains S, Grootendorst M, et al. Adjuvant taxanes play a key role in the development of breast cancer-related lymphoedema. Br J Surg 2015 Aug. 102(9): 1071-78.
  • Purushotham AD, Shamil E, Cariati M, et al. Age at diagnosis and distant metastasis in breast cancer: a surprising inverse relationship. Eur J Cancer 2014 Jul. 50(10):1697-1705.
  • Marlow R, Honeth G, Lombardi S, Cariati M, et al. A novel model of dormancy for bone metastatic breast cancer cells. Cancer Res. 2013 Dec 1; 73(23): 6886-99.
  • Cariati M, Marlow R, Dontu G. Xenotransplantation of breast cancers. Methods Mol Biol. 2011; 731: 471-482.
  • Purushotham AD, Pinder SE, Cariati M, et al. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy – not the best option in estrogen receptor positive, HER-2 negative, invasive classical lobular carcinoma of the breast? J Clin Oncol. 2010 Aug 1; 28(22): 3552-4.
  • Liau SS, Cariati M, Noble D, et al. Audit of local recurrence following breast conservation surgery with 5-mm target margin and hypofractionated 40-Gray breast radiotherapy for invasive breast cancer. Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 2010 Oct; 92(7): 562-8.
  • Cariati M, Pinder SE, Purushotham AD. What constitutes an adequate margin of excision in breast-conserving surgery? Breast Cancer Online 2010.
  • Cariati M. Evaluating the link between stem cells and breast cancer. Expert Rev Anticancer Ther. 2008 Aug; 8(8): 1313-22.
  • Cariati M, Purushotham AD. Stem cells and breast cancer. Histopathology. 2008 Jan; 52(1): 99-107.
  • Cariati M, Naderi A, Brown JP, Smalley MJ, Pinder SE, Caldas C, Purushotham AD. Alpha-6 integrin is necessary for the tumourigenicity of a stem cell-like sub-population within the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. Int J Cancer 2008 Jan 15; 122(2): 298-304.
  • Naderi A, Teschendorff AE, Beigel J, Cariati M, Ellis IO, Brenton JD, Caldas C. Bex2 is overexpressed in a subset of primary breast cancers and mediates NGF/NF-kB inhibition of apoptosis in breast cancer cell lines. Cancer Res. 2007 Jul 15; 67: 6725-6736.
  • Lynch M, Cariati M, Purushotham AD. Breast cancer, stem cells, and prospects for therapy. Breast Cancer Res. 2006 Jul 3; 8(3): 211-21.
  • Cariati M, Bennett Britton TM, Pinder S, Purushotham AD. “Inflammatory” Breast Cancer. Surgical Oncology. 2005 Nov. 14(3):133-143.
  • Purushotham AD, Cariati M. Internal Mammary Nodes and Breast Cancer. Br J Surg. 2005 Feb;92(2):131-2.