Assoc. Prof. Dr. Iris Allajbeu is Radiology consultant working in the position of Senior Clinical Research Associate at Cambridge. She obtained her Medical Degree from the University of Ankara, in 2004. She was a Radiology resident for 3 years at the University of Ankara between 2004-2007, and then she finished her last year of residency at the University of Tirana, Albania, in June 2008. She then did a 3-month honorary fellowship in Cardiac Imaging at the University of Graz, followed by a clinical fellowship in Cardiovascular Imaging at the American Hospital of Tirana, from September 2008 to March 2009. Iris started her work as a consultant in the American Hospital of Tirana in April 2009, where she became Head of Radiology Department in 2012. In 2015, she obtained her PhD in Cardiovascular Imaging; her thesis ‘Coronary CT Angiography and its correlation with traditional risk factors of coronary artery disease in Albania’ was awarded as ‘Best Thesis’. She has been a clinical lecturer in the University of Tirana, teaching medical students and radiology residents, during 2015-2018 and has organised several national and international medical conferences. She is the vice President of Albanian Society of Radiology and active member of ECR, EUSOBI and RSNA, as well as reviewer for several radiology journals.
Iris first joined BRAID trial as a visiting researcher in November 2018. After getting her GMC registration, she worked as an honorary clinical fellow in Cambridge Breast Unit between 2019-2020, and then she was appointed as Senior Clinical Research Associate / Honorary Consultant in Oct 2020, from BRAID trial.
Her current research is focused in early detection of breast cancer in women with dense breasts, using additional imaging modalities such Automated breast Ultrasound, Contrast Enhanced Mammograms and Abbreviated MRI (BRAID trial) with Professor Fiona J Gilbert and the breast research team.
She is also working on some AI and Radiomics Breast studies.
Teaching and Training Experience
- 12/10/2015 – 08/06/2018: Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tirana, Cardiovascular and Breast Imaging
- 2018-2019: ABUS and ABB-MRI training for radiologists in the Cambridge Breast Unit for BRAID trial
- 2018-2019: Lecturer, Albanian Medical Education Association Scientific activities and workshops
- 2019- present: giving regular lectures to Radiology registrars on Thursday Morning Radiology tutorials, University of Cambridge
Management Experience
- Board Coordinator for Advanced Imaging, IMCA
- Chair of Radiology and Radiation Committee, American Hospital, Tirana
- Deputy Chair of Patient Evaluation and Medical Treatment Committee, American Hospital, Tirana
- Vice Chair of Assessment of Patients Committee, American Hospital, Tirana
- Infection Committee, American Hospital, Tirana
- Quality Management Directory, American Hospital, Tirana
Selected Recent Publications and Presentations
- Baxter GC, Patterson AJ, Woitek R, Allajbeu I, Graves MJ, Gilbert F. Improving the image quality of DWI in breast cancer: comparison of multi-shot DWI using multiplexed sensitivity encoding to conventional single-shot echo-planar imaging DWI. Br J Radiol. 2021;94(1119):20200427
- Allajbeu Iris, Sarah E Hickman, N Payne, Penelope Moyle, Kathryn Taylor, Nisha Sharma and Fiona J. Gilbert. “Automated Breast Ultrasound: Technical Aspects, Impact on Breast Screening, and Future Perspectives.” Current Breast Cancer Reports 13 (2021): 141 – 150.
- Vinnicombe S, Harvey H, Healy NA, et al. Introduction of an abbreviated breast MRI service in the UK as part of the BRAID trial: practicalities, challenges, and future directions. Clinical Radiology. 2021 Jun; 76(6):427-433. DOI: 10.1016/j.crad.2021.01.020.
- Gilbert FJ, Hickman SE, Baxter GC, Allajbeu I, James J, Caraco C, Vinnicombe S. Opportunities in cancer imaging: risk-adapted breast imaging in screening. Clin Radiol. 2021 Oct;76(10):763-773. doi: 10.1016/j.crad.2021.02.013. Epub 2021 Apr 2. PMID: 33820637
- Rundo L, Beer L, Escudero Sanchez L, Crispin-Ortuzar M, Reinius M, McCague C, Sahin H, Bura V, Pintican R, Zerunian M, Ursprung S, Allajbeu I, Addley H, Martin-Gonzalez P, Buddenkotte T, Singh N, Sahdev A, Funingana IG, Jimenez-Linan M, Markowetz F, Brenton JD, Sala E, Woitek R. Clinically Interpretable Radiomics-Based Prediction of Histopathologic Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma. Front Oncol. 2022 Jun 16; 12:868265
- I Allajbeu, N Payne, V Papalouka, N Healy, P Moyle, K Morris, C Van Litsenborgh, FJ Gilbert. ‘Quantification of enhancement intensity and pattern of benign and malignant lesions in contrast enhanced spectral mammography and its correlation with magnetic resonance imaging enhancement patterns’ Conference Paper, EMJ July 2022
- Vacuum Assisted Excision (VAE) as an alternative to open surgical excision for B3 lesions in a screening clinical unit; research presentation, ECR 2020
- Automated Breast Ultrasound (ABUS) in patients with dense breasts: Correlation between degree of Shadowing and breast composition on US and Mammogram; Research Presentation, RSNA 2020
- Comparison of 3 abbreviated breast MRI protocols in a screening population: a reader study; Research Presentation, ECR 2021
