Professor Dowsett’s research focuses almost exclusively on breast cancer and predominantly on hormonal aspects of the disease and biomarkers of response with a research team of about 24 investigators. He was closely involved with the clinical development of aromatase inhibitors and in the creation of national and international standards for steroid receptor and HER2 analyses (ASCO/CAP Guidelines Steering Committees). He co-chairs the International Working Party for Ki67 in Breast Cancer. He was the founding chairman of the UK NCRI Translational Research (subsequently Biomarker and Imaging) Clinical Study Group.
He has authored over 600 published papers related to breast cancer, and given numerous named lectures including the 2007 William L McGuire Memorial Lecture and the prestigious Susan G. Komen Brinker Award lecture For Scientific Distinction at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (December 2014). He served 7 years on the Executive Board of the Breast International Group (BIG) and sits on the Executive/Steering Committees of several clinical trials. He has been a NCRI Senior Clinical Investigator since 2009. In 2013 he was appointed as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. In January 2018 he was the inaugural Chair of the 1st UK Interdisciplinary Breast Cancer Symposium.