Carol Fabian, MD’72

2012 Distinguished Medical Alumna

Carol Fabian, M.D., is one of the world’s most influential physicians in the field of breast cancer prevention, treatment, and survivorship.

A native of Kansas, Dr. Fabian received her M.D. and her internal medicine and oncology training at the KU School of Medicine. She joined the faculty in 1977 and began working with Dr. Barth Hoogstraten, then head of oncology. Excitement was building for tamoxifen, which by the 1980s had proven so effective in treating breast cancer that Dr. Fabian and her colleagues began to ask whether they could predict who was at highest short‐term risk for breast cancer in order to apply prevention therapy. She proceeded to found the Breast Cancer Prevention Center, developing programs dedicated to determining who is at highest short-term risk for breast cancer and finding well tolerated treatments to block the disease before it grows beyond the precancerous stage. Similar programs have been started at several sites across the country using the random fine needle aspiration technique as a minimally invasive method of obtaining tissue to check for markers that may determine breast cancer risk and to assess responses in early phase clinical trials of prevention strategies.

In 2008, she established a parallel Breast Cancer Survivorship Center for women who have been successfully treated for breast cancer but still remain at risk for relapse or a new breast primary cancer.  Dr. Fabian now leads the Cancer Prevention and Survivorship Research Program at the University of Kansas Cancer Center.

Recently, her focus has been on developing prevention methods that don’t adversely affect quality of life but rather improve overall health. These include energy balance, omega-3 fatty acids, lignans, and vitamin D; and for postmenopausal women taking hormone replacement, use of aromatase inhibitors. Many of these investigations have been supported by the National Cancer Institute and involve a consortium of academic institutions, thanks to Dr. Fabian’s training of numerous investigators nationally.

A University Distinguished Professor who holds the Morris Family Endowed Chair in Cancer

Prevention, Dr. Fabian has taught more than 90 medical oncology fellows. She has published more than 250 manuscripts, book chapters, presentations and abstracts, exemplifying a career dedicated to research and clinical management of breast cancer.

For her international leadership in breast cancer research and prevention, the KU Medical

Alumni Association is proud to honor Carol Fabian, M.D., as the 2012 Distinguished Medical Alumna.