Martin Yaffe

Dr. Martin Yaffe is Professor of Medical Biophysics and a Senior Scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute. He is also Co-Director of the Imaging Research Program at The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. He holds the Tory Family Chair in Cancer Research.

Dr. Yaffe has been actively involved in research on breast cancer detection and breast cancer imaging for over 40 years and has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles. His group pioneered the development of digital mammography, now used worldwide, and developed methods for quantitative measurement of breast density, an important risk factor for breast cancer. He has collaborated with scientists internationally studying to the role of breast density in causation, diagnosis and prevention of breast cancer. He also contributed to the early development of contrast-enhanced digital mammography. He is the Canadian Study Chair of TMIST, a large international randomized trial of breast tomosynthesis and is also developing imaging methods of cancer biomarkers to more accurately characterize cancers to guide precision therapy. He is a co-founder of the New Zealand company, Volpara Health which develops software for breast cancer imaging. Several of his former graduate students are now in leadership positions in North American universities and in the medical imaging industry.

In February, 2016 Dr. Yaffe was inducted as a Member of The Order of Canada.