Dr. Laura Esserman - the breast cancer researcher, surgeon and visionary who runs the breast cancer center at UCSF - recently received the Journal of Women's Health Award for outstanding achievement.

Esserman is three years into a large-scale research program called Athena, focused on expediting and improving treatment by better understanding risk factors and outcomes.

Esserman is 56 and has been at UCSF since 1993. She is known for being passionate about her patients and the science around breast cancer, and for her practice of singing to patients before they go under a general anesthetic.

Q: There's a lot of confusion around mammography for women. What do you recommend?

A: Everyone is arguing about research trials started 30-plus years ago. A lot has changed since then. Not everyone needs the same approach to screening. I think people should follow the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommendation: If you are at high risk, start screening annually if you are in your 40s. If not, then every other year starting at 50. If you are past 74, you make a decision about life expectancy.

Q: What is the latest with Athena?

A: We have five medical centers working together. We've made it so that people coming in for screening get screened for their risk. We have standardized the information we get so we can make referrals. We are uniquely poised to make a difference, to change the approach to mammography.

Q: What else are you excited about in your own research?

A: We are putting a consortium together (as part of Athena), where we will profile, predict and prevent. We will use all of the information to say when a woman should start screening, how often, and what modality we want to offer this woman. This will be in place by January 2015.

Q: How did you become such a rock star in your field?

A: Passion, persistence and energy. I want to drive efforts to completion: change the way we run clinical trials, change how we make team learning. I couldn't do what I do without being a part of a great team. Translational science is about changing lives, and I'm incredibly lucky to have a job where I get to use my skills to make a difference in people's lives, to help them get through a difficult time.

Q: What is your home life like? Your kids are off to college and out of the nest?

A: Yes, my daughter is 23 and my son is 19. In theory, I have free time. It's fun for me to think that I can now go to a movie if I want. I don't do that, but I think it!

Q: What books are on your bedside table?

A: Oh, about 10 books. I just finished "To End All Wars" by Adam Hochschild and "The Flamethrowers" by Rachel Kushner. I alternate fiction and nonfiction, and have the new Doris Kearns Goodwin book.

Q: What haven't you done that's next on your list?

A: I love theater and music. I want to get theater tickets and start going again. Time can be infinitely filled with work. I'd love to get back to more singing.

Q: Your singing voice is beautiful. What's new in your repertoire for patients?

A: Oh, I have my old favorites, including "Don't You Fret" from "Les Misérables." I offer patients choices.

Q: You were born in Chicago and raised in Miami, before heading to Harvard and then Stanford - for a medical degree and a business degree. When did you know you wanted to be a doctor?

A: I always wanted to be a scientist. I started working at a lab in Miami when I was 14.

Q: Your work must be full of victories and losses. How do you handle the losses?

A: Well, it makes me impatient. It makes me push for things to be done more quickly. We have outcomes that are wonderful for the patient, and times when an outcome doesn't work out for a patient. I have to look at it and learn from that. It is a reminder that today is the first day of the rest of your life.

To see a short video of breast cancer surgeon and researcher Dr. Laura Esserman singing - as she does to her patients - go to www.sfgate.com/news/item/Dr-Laura-Esserman-27838.php
