Dr. Avital Fischer

Dr. Fischer is currently working in the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at Carmel Hospital in Haifa, Israel, with affiliation to the Technion. There she works with one of the largest population-based cancer registries in Israel, as part of the Clalit Heath Services non-profit insurance group, to study factors that contribute to long-term survival of breast cancer patients.

Dr. Fischer is utilizing the she knowledge acquired during her dissertation work at the University of California, Irvine, where she studied stress and breast cancer onset in Orange County, California, investigating how commonly used medications for depression in the class of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) influence overall mortality among women diagnosed with breast cancer over the past 20 years in Northern Israel.

Dr. Fischer incorporates advanced survival analysis to take into consideration multiple potential confounding variables such as age at diagnosis, endocrine therapy and tumor characteristics including hormone receptor status and stage at diagnosis to increase the validity of her findings. Results of this study are expected to allow medical practitioners to better understand the risks and benefits of treating depression in women who are either at risk for breast cancer or have already been diagnosed with it.