Ms Clare Schilling details
Telephone:
Email:
Location:
- University College Hospital
GMC/GDC number:
6056250
Professional background
Ms Clare Schilling is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon specialising in cancer of the face, mouth, salivary glands and neck. She undertook her medical degree at Imperial College followed by dentistry at Kings College London. During her specialist surgical training she completed a PhD looking at detection of early metastasis from oral cancer. She subsequently completed a head and neck fellowship in London performing a full range of head and neck reconstructive and microvascular surgery.
She is Associate Professor and Head of Centre at University College London Head and Neck Academic Centre with over £1 million in research funding from the National Institute of Health Research. She is an international expert in sentinel node biopsy for oral cancer. Clinically, she is an Honorary Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon at University College Hospital London.
She is Chief Investigator of NIHR funded multicentre trial, “LOOC”, for lymphatic mapping of oropharyngeal cancers. She is co-director of Headstart, the Royal College of Surgeons accredited national training program for sentinel node biopsy in oral cancer. Her research and clinical interests include fluorescence guided surgery, augmented reality surgery, health inequalities and quality outcome measures.
Specialties
Research interests
- Technology driven surgery
- Fluorescence based tumour imaging
- Early diagnosis
- Patient centred outcomes
Publications
- A Systematic Review of Prognostic Factors and Anatomical Variability in Surgically Managed T4b Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Implications for Future Classification
M Abukhder, M S Hassan, O. Mubarak, K. Payne, A. Sahovaler, C. Schilling, accepted BJOMS October 2025 - Current Evidence and future directions in the surveillance of HPV-Positive oropharyngeal carcinoma.
Iocca, O., Campo, F., Schilling, C., Payne, K., & Di Maio, P. Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy (2025) - Immunotherapy for locally advanced head and neck cancer.
Kyzas P, Paleri V, Winter S, Schilling C, Schache A, Vassiliou L, Bisase B, Cocks H, Nutting C. Br J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2025 Sep;63(7):475-476.. - Micrometastasis and Isolated Tumor Cells in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Refining Nodal Staging with Emerging Technologies.
MP, S., Rao, K.N., Thompson, L.D.R. et al Head and Neck Pathol 19, 106 (2025). - Multidisciplinary evidence-based consensus statements on salvage surgery for recurrent head and neck cancer (International Centre for Recurrent head and neck Cancer).
Williamson A, Brady G, Harris N, Haris PA, Bisase B, Chiu K, Douglas C, Fleming J, Hamilton D, Haridass A, Hughes C, Iqbal MS, Kerawala C, King E, Liu Z, McCaul J, Montgomery J, Nankivell P, Nixon I, Noble D, Nugent M, Paterson C, Pracy P, Riva F, Roe J, Schache A, Selbong U, Schilling C, Simo R, Winter S, O'Leary B, Paleri V. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2025 Jun - An Analytical Framework for Enhancing Cancer Care Efficiency in North London Hospitals.
Cooke E, Nadia A.S. Smith, Chung D, Goretzki B, Thomas TA, Flanaganm A, Gerrand C, Navani N, Rajan P, Roy A, Schilling C, et al. Healthcare Analytics, Jun 2025 in press. - Lymphatic mapping Of Oropharyngeal Cancer (LOOC): protocol for a phase II surgical imaging trial to evaluate contralateral drainage and occult metastasis in oropharyngeal cancer
Schilling C et al. BMJ Open. 2025 Jun 5;15(6) - Incidence and predictive factors for positive non-sentinel lymph nodes in completion neck dissection following a positive sentinel node biopsy in early oral cancer.
Karamchandani S, Sahovaler A, Crosbie-Jones E, McGurk M, Thavaraj S, Alibhai M, Wan S, Forster M, Sassoon I, Schilling C. Oral Oncology, Dec 2024 (159) - Frozen Section Analysis of Sentinel Nodes in Patients With Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma - Systematic review and metanalysis,
Abukhder M, Sahovaler, Vrakas P, McGurk M, Thavaraj S, Schilling C. JAMA Oto-H&N Surg. 2024 Oct 10;150(11):1021-1028. - The impact of elective cervical lymph node treatment on the tumour immune response in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: time for a change in treatment strategy?
Payne K, Nenclares P, Schilling C. BJC reports vol 2 68 (2024)