Susan M. Love, MD, MBA has dedicated her professional life to the eradication of breast cancer. What began as a career in the 1970’s quickly turned into a mission and as chief visionary officer of Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation (DSLRF), Dr. Love oversees an active research program centered on breast cancer cause and prevention.
Dr. Love has always been a pioneer and entrepreneur. Her reputation as an activist comes from her role as one of the “founding mothers” of the breast cancer advocacy movement in the early 1990’s, as one of the founders of the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC). President Clinton appointed Dr. Love to the National Cancer Advisory Board, on which she served from 1998-2004.
Dr. Love started the first all-women breast center in Boston, then went on to develop a model for multidisciplinary breast care at the Revlon/UCLA Breast Center. After inventing an intraductal catheter at UCLA she recognized that she could develop it further in the for-profit arena and started Pro•Duct Health Inc. (later acquired by Cytyc Corporation). In addition to being DSLRF’s chief visionary officer, Dr. Love was a founder and served on the board of Windy Hill Medical, a breast cancer prevention company.
Known as a trusted guide to women worldwide through her books and the Foundation website, Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book was termed “the bible for women with breast cancer” by The New York Times. Dr. Susan Love’s Menopause and Hormone Book, first published in 1998 and revised in 2003, was one of the first to sound the alarm against the long term use of postmenopausal hormones. Live a Little (Crown 2009) encourages women to take a reasonable approach to becoming healthy. The sixth edition of Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book was released in September 2015 along with a Spanish translation El Libro de la Mama.
A true visionary, Dr. Love’s notable projects include the Army of Women®, a creative internet solution partnering women and scientists with the goal of accelerating breast cancer research. In October 2012, the Foundation launched the Health of Women [HOW] Study™, an online cohort study with the goal of identifying the cause of breast cancer.
In June of 2012, Dr. Love was diagnosed with leukemia and underwent chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. She returned to work in January of 2013 more determined than ever to find the cause of cancer and end it once and for all.
Dr. Love is a Clinical Professor of Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and lectures nationally and internationally on breast cancer, menopause, and women's health. She has been awarded six honorary doctorate degrees, as well as numerous honors and citations. She also has a business degree from the Executive MBA Program at UCLA's Anderson School.
Dr. Love received her medical degree from SUNY Downstate Medical Center in New York and did her surgical training at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital. She has retired from the active practice of surgery to dedicate herself to the urgent work of breast cancer prevention through finding the cause.