Ayelet Shai, MD/PhD Senior Physician

Dr. Ayelet Shai is the Head of the Breast Cancer Unit at Rambam Health Care Campus.

My main research interests are the interface between social status and health in breast cancer patients and the adverse effects of breast cancer treatment.

We are conducting a large prospective study, aiming to develop a predictive model for chronic adverse treatment effects based on clinical, psychosocial, and proteomic data. This study combines questionnaires and interviews focusing on chronic pain and cognitive decline, psychosocial data, serum analysis with advanced proteomics methods, and clinical data collection.

In addition, we are conducting several retrospective research projects to better understand the association between socioeconomic status, treatment, and prognosis of breast cancer patients, and we are heading a large multicenter European collaboration testing the benefit of oncological treatments in young patients with HER2-positive breast cancer, aiming to personalize treatment and reduce toxicity.

I am also interested in bioethics, specifically focusing on health equity, and to this end, I am conducting a collaborative study, with colleagues from the bioethics sphere, projects looking at health in disadvantaged populations in Israel.