Professor O’Dwyer is a highly experienced consultant surgeon with an international reputation for her work in the areas of colorectal disease and peritoneal malignancy. She is a graduate of the University of St Andrew’s and The Victoria University of Manchester. She was awarded a Research Fellowship at Harvard University, USA, and travelling Fellowships to New South Wales, Australia, The Mayo Clinic and Minneapolis USA. Her first consultant post in 1992 was at The University Hospital Trust, Birmingham, and she took up her current post at The Christie in 1995.

In the last 15 years Professor O’Dwyer has developed the colorectal team at The Christie from a single practitioner to a team of six consultants which provides a national service for peritoneal surface malignancy and lead specialist multidisciplinary teams (MDT) for pelvic, colorectal, peritoneal and anal cancers. Their work in the field of colorectal peritoneal metastases was awarded Cancer Care Team of the year in the BMJ Awards and Macmillan in 2013.

Professor O’Dwyer has actively engaged in clinical management to improve services regionally and nationally and has worked with NHS England to support national commissioning of services for pseudomyxoma peritonei, colorectal peritoneal metastases and robotic surgery. This has allowed The Christie to introduce advanced surgical training fellowships approved by the Royal College of Surgeons, the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, and the European Society of Surgical Oncology. This enhanced training and knowledge transfer has allowed surgeons from the UK and abroad to learn new skills and introduce novel techniques.