Susan Love

Susan Margaret Love (February 9, 1948 – July 2, 2023) was an American surgeon, a prominent advocate of preventive breast cancer research, and author. She was regarded as one of the most respected women's health specialists in the United States.

Background Early life and education Susan Margaret Love was born in Little Silver, New Jersey, on February 9, 1948. She lived in Mexico and Puerto Rico as a child, as a result of her father's work as an industrial salesman. Love enrolled at Fordham University after having spent five unsuccessful months at the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

Love received her medical degree from SUNY Downstate Medical School cum laude in 1974 and did her surgical residency at Boston's Beth Israel Medical Center. She also graduated from the Executive MBA program at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. The couple married in San Francisco in 2004. After a successful treatment, Love returned to work the following year, but died from a recurrence of the disease on July 2, 2023, at the age of 75, at her home in Los Angeles.

Career Love completed her surgical training at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital, and in 1988 was recruited to found the Faulkner Breast Center at Faulkner Hospital, with comprehensive care that allowed patients to see teams composed of radiation therapists, oncologists and surgeons. After leaving the Faulkner Hospital in Boston, Love was recruited to set up what later became the Revlon Breast Center at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1992. A founder of the breast cancer advocacy movement in the early 1990s, she helped organize the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC). She later served on the boards of the NBCC and the Young Survival Coalition. In 1996, she retired from the active practice of surgery to dedicate her time to finding the cause for breast cancer. According to The New York Times, Love sought "not so much to cure the disease as to vanquish it altogether by isolating its causes and pre-empting them at a cellular level". Love was a clinical professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Love also served as the Founder and Medical Director of the Dr. Susan Love Foundation for Breast Cancer Research, formerly titled The Santa Barbara Breast Cancer Institute. In 2020, Love became the Chief Visionary Officer.

Bibliography (selective) Books Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book First Edition (1990) Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book Second Edition (1995) Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book Third Edition (2000) Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book Fourth Edition (2005) Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book Fifth Edition (2010) Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book Sixth Edition (2015) Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book Seventh Edition (2023) Dr. Susan Love's Menopause and Hormone Book (2003) Live a Little!: Breaking the Rules Won't Break Your Health (2009)

Peer-reviewed articles