Prof. Kerstin Sandelin received her medical training and postgraduate education at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Recognized as one of the world’s foremost medical universities, the Karolinska Institutet is the single largest center of medical academic research in Sweden. Since 1901, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has selected the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.
Professor Sandelin is one of a small number of women professors of surgery at Karolinska University Hospital. Her field of interest is endocrine and breast surgery. She serves as the chair of the National Quality Breast Cancer Register and is a founding member and past-president of Breast Surgery International (BSI). BSI was formed in 1999 as an integrated society within the International Surgical Society (ISS) with the goal of promoting breast surgery worldwide, particularly in developing countries where the diagnosis, management, and treatment options differ from standard recommendations due to lack of resources and cultural and socioeconomic barriers. Her research involves breast MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) in women with breast cancer, patient-related outcome measures, and management of women at high risk of breast cancer and oncoplastic breast surgery. In recognition of her work, she was awarded honorary membership of the ISS in 2015.
Professor Sandelin is widely regarded as an expert in the epidemiology of breast disease. She is the principal investigator on a number of clinical trials and has been sought as a collaborator for several national and international task forces and multicenter studies. She works closely with breast cancer support groups and nongovernmental organizations to promote health awareness and early detection of breast cancer, including the Kicki Waller Breast Cancer Foundation.
Professor Sandelin has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed, high-impact journals. She has served as an associate editor of the World Journal of Surgery and is a member of the advisory board for Cancer Society Sweden. In recognition of her stature as a researcher and scholar, Professor Sandelin was elected as scientific secretary to the Swedish Breast Surgeons Society in 1997.
Professor Sandelin is truly living the American College of Surgeons’ mission to inspire quality, high standards, and better outcomes and to mentor, train, and support surgeons from different parts of the world.
