Breast care

Breast Care services are provided by the University Hospitals of Leicester in the purpose-built breast care centre at Glenfield Hospital. Our team of specialists help women through diagnosis, treatment and surgery following a diagnosis of cancer. 

Breast care services are provided by the University Hospitals of Leicester at the Breast Care Centre in Glenfield Hospital. Our team of specialists helps women through every stage—from diagnosis to treatment and surgery—after a breast cancer diagnosis. We work closely with plastic surgeons to offer a full range of modern operations, including:

  • Breast-conserving surgery (removing the cancer but keeping as much of the breast as possible)
  • Breast reconstruction (rebuilding the breast after a mastectomy)

Each month, the Breast Care Centre at Glenfield Hospital sees around 800 new patients and carries out nearly 900 follow-up appointments, either in person or by phone. We perform about 125 outpatient procedures, such as biopsies, and admit over 100 patients for surgery — some as day cases and others for overnight stays. We also handle a small number of emergency cases, like breast infections. On average, patients stay in hospital for just over a day, and our 30-day readmission rate is low at 2.6%. Most of the 118 operations we perform each month are for breast cancer.

Accessibility information for the Breast Care Centre Accessibility information for Ward 34 (for surgery patients)

The Care Quality Commission rated surgery at Glenfield Hospital as good in its January 2017 inspection. The full inspection report is available on the Care Quality Commission website.

We are also a pilot site for a new technology called Magseed. This helps surgeons locate and remove breast cancer more accurately, leading to better outcomes for patients.

Click on the links on the left for information about the Breast Care Centre and the NHS breast screening programme. 

New Mobile Breast Screening Unit

The new Mobile Breast Screening Unit is due to open for appointments on 27 August at Glenfield Hospital (near the PMO building). The unit will be open Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm. Intermittent closures for tea/lunch breaks (sign to inform patients).

Due to the large amount of women booked onto the unit (up to 60 women in one day), we recommend to attend no more than 5 minutes prior to appointment time due to limited space. There is allocated car parking spaces shared with MRI near to the unit signed posted PMO Imaging Parking ONLY. The appointments are at a fast paced and will not need to pay for parking.

Contact details

  • Superintendent Radiographer, Joanne Carlton: 0116 2502517
  • General Manager, Serina Wright: 0116 2502504
  • Administration Manager, Gillian Knott: 0116 2502517

Breast Care Nurses’ contact number:
0116 250 2513

There are many good sources of information about breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. University Hospitals Leicester provide regularly updated information leaflets in several languages;there are also national organisations that provide information and support (see below). 

National organisations 

There are a number of online resources with information about breast cancer that may be helpful for patients and their family and friends who want to read more: 

Local organisations & support groups 

We are fortunate to have several organisations in our local area who can provide information and support: 

  • Coping with Cancer– an independent local charity that provides support for cancer patients in Leicestershire and Rutland
  • Crazy Hats Breast Cancer Appeal – a Northamptonshire charity which supports women and men who are going through treatment for breast cancer, who are about to undertake treatment or are fighting the battle to become cancer survivors
  • Breasts Reunited – a website providing information to patients and carers about breast reconstruction
  • Bosom Friends– monthly at Glenfield Hospital
  • Breast of Friends, attached to Coping with cancer at Helen Webb House Westleigh Rd Leicester 0116 258 6189

Also, there is a new reconstruction support group called Keeping Abreast at Helen Webb House, which meets on the first Monday of every month. 

Contact details are 0116 2585328 or 07956266983 or email [email protected] 

We are always in need of support to improve what we do – whether this is help with refurbishments in Breast Care itself to improve the environment for our patients, such as our redecorated and refurbished quiet rooms with the help of our sponsors; purchasing equipment; or aiding our Research Fund which supports Breast Cancer research projects in Leicester. 

If you’d like to help raise funds for Breast Care at our hospitals you can make a donation via Leicester Hospitals Charity or contact us (0116 258 8709) from 9am to 4pm to find out about fundraising activities run by our other supporters. 

The Breast Care team are involved with a number of clinical trials at any one time. We endeavour to offer relevant clinical trials to all patients who are eligible as this helps to improve the treatment for patients in future. If you are asked to consider participating in a trial or research study you will be given the approved information sheet or leaflet and time to make your decision. If you choose not to participate in a trial you will still be offered standard treatment.Our research portfolio is administered by our Research Nurse, Kaitlin Duckworth. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to ask your clinical team. 

The following list was correct at time of publication in mid-2019 but changes frequently:  

Current trials that are open to recruitment for breast at GH: 

  • POSNOC – POsitive Sentinel NOde: adjuvant therapy alone versus adjuvant therapy plus Clearance or axillary radiotherapy. A randomised controlled trial of axillary treatment in women with early stage breast cancer who have metastases in one or two sentinel nodes. 
  • Pre-Atnec– The primary aim of this study is to determine whether black ink tattoo injected into an axillary lymph node can be visualized intra-operatively in the same fashion blue sentinel nodes are identified. The second objective is to determine the concordance between tattooed, biopsied axillary lymph node and sentinel node. The third objective is to compare the preoperative pathological assessment with the histological findings of resected nodes.     ( RECENTLY CLOSED TO RECRUITMENT PRIOR TO ATNEC) 
  • LORIS– The LORIS Trial aims to establish whether patients with newly diagnosed low risk DCIS can safely avoid surgery without detriment to their wellbeing (psychological and physical) and whether those patients who do require surgery can be identified by pathological and radiological means. 
  • EXPAT– Development and Application of Ex Vivo Assays to Assess Efficacy Biomarkers in the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer. 

Breast trials ran from the Hope unit LRI:  

  • Add-Aspirin– A phase III, double blind, placebo controlled, randomised trial assessing the effects of aspirin on disease recurrence and survival after primary therapy in common non-metastatic solid tumours. 
  • Impassion– A Phase III Randomised Study to Investigate the Efficacy and Safety of Atezolizumab (Anti−PD-L1 Antibody) in Combination with Neoadjuvant Anthracycline/Nab-paclitaxel Based Chemotherapy Compared with Placebo and Chemotherapy in Patients with Primary Invasive Triple-Negative Breast Cancer 
  • VIOLETTE– A Phase II, Open Label, Randomised, Multi-centre Study to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of Agents Targeting DNA Damage Repair in Combination with Olaparib versus Olaparib Monotherapy in the Treatment of Metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer Patients Stratified by Alterations in Homologous Recombinant Repair (HRR)-related Genes (including BRCA1/2). 
  • BYLieve– A phase II, multicenter, open-label, two-cohort, noncomparative study to assess the efficacy and safety of alpelisib plus fulvestrant or letrozole in patients with PIK3CA mutant, hormone receptor (HR) positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer (aBC), who have progressed on or after CDK 4/6 inhibitor treatment.