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Dr Karen Tipples consultant photo

Dr Karen Tipples

Consultant and director of Barts Cancer Centre at St Bartholomew's Hospital

Now a consultant clinical oncologist, Karen began her career by joining the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme. She went on to hold the general manager position for learning disability services at Newham Hospital and completed a post graduate diploma in NHS management.

Karen has been a consultant at St Bartholomew’s Hospital since 2012 and has held various senior positions including as clinical director for radiotherapy and urological cancers and the lead clinician for the prostate cancer specialist clinic.

She has a keen interest in training and education and is the national clinical lead for recruiting junior doctors to oncology training. She is a member of the Royal College of Radiologists’ National Specialty Training Board; she was named the RCP’s trainer of the year and was recognised for her outstanding contribution to training during the Covid pandemic.

She has been director of the Barts Cancer Centre since September 2024.

Treatments and procedures

  • Radiotherapy, including stereotactic radiotherapy.
  • Chemotherapy
  • Clinics at St Bartholomew’s Hospital’s on Thursdays
  • Clinics at Newham University Hospital on Mondays

Research interests

  • Registered Cyberknife practitioner and delivers stereotactic radiotherapy (SABR) for prostate cancer in both the curative and palliative settings. Setting up and delivery of the latest clinical trials in this field at Barts, alongside the radiotherapy team. 
  • Principal Investigator for a number of radiotherapy trials in urological and breast cancers. 
  • Research interests include recent work within the Barts Cancer Centre to assess  the safety and efficacy of using deep-learning based software for radiotherapy delivery.  She has also been involved in helping establish standardised consent processes nationally for radiotherapy treatments and forms part of the team evaluating the role of Circulating Tumour Cells in prostate cancer diagnosis.

Leadership roles

  • Director of the Barts Cancer Centre
  • Clinical Director for Urology and Skin Cancers
  • Clinical Director for Education and Training for Solid Oncology
  • Deputy Clinical Lead for National Recruitment for Clinical Oncology
  • Lead Clinician for the Prostate Cancer Specialist Clinic
  • Member of the Royal College of Radiologists Specialty Training Board and Curriculum Committee
Speciality
Consultant services Cancer
Languages Spoken English,French
GMC number 6053206