Dr Richard Shaffer

Professional statement

Dr Richard Shaffer is a leading radiotherapy specialist and clinical oncologist based in London and Surrey. He has a specialist interest in treating benign (non-malignant) conditions with radiotherapy, including Dupuytren's disease, Ledderhose (plantar fibromatosis), plantar fasciitis, insertional Achilles tendonitis and keloid scarring.
 
He was the first in the UK to treat patients with osteoarthritis (of the hand, hip, knee, foot, elbow, shoulder), tendinopathy (including tennis elbow, golfers elbow, patellar tendonitis, rotator cuff syndrome, de Quervain’s tendonitis) and bursitis (including trochanteric bursitis or greater trochanteric pain syndrome, GTPS). He also treats patients post-operatively with radiotherapy for heterotopic ossification and pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS). He uses the latest radiotherapy technology to do this.
 
Dr Richard Shaffer is president of the International Organisation for Radiotherapy for Benign Conditions. He is clinical lead for benign radiotherapy for GenesisCare UK. He is co-author of a 2015 and 2023 Royal College of Radiologists documents on the use of radiotherapy for benign conditions, and on the most recent German benign radiotherapy guidelines. Dr Richard Shaffer previously worked as the clinical lead for radiotherapy in Guildford and he chaired The Network Radiotherapy Group and the Radiotherapy Strategy Group.
 
Dr Richard Shaffer has also chaired the Radiotherapy Technology Development Group and led the Brain Tumour Working Group from 2010 to 2019. Dr Shaffer was the principal investigator on several treatment studies in prostate cancer, skin cancer and brain tumours. He supervised a clinical fellow in a programme of clinical and lab-based radiobiological research. Before working at Royal Surrey County Hospital, Dr Richard Shaffer undertook his oncology training in London and later completed a Clinical Fellowship in Radiation Oncology (treatment of cancer with radiotherapy) in Vancouver, Canada. Whilst in Canada he completed several research projects focused on technical radiotherapy, including the comparisons of VMAT with conventional IMRT therapy and RapidArc in several disease sites such as breast, prostate and high-grade glioma.

Dr Shaffer treats patients throughout the UK. Consultations can be arranged by email for the following locations:

• GenesisCare Bristol
• GenesisCare Southampton
• GenesisCare Windsor
• GenesisCare Elstree
• GenesisCare Guildford
• GenesisCare Birmingham
• GenesisCare Maidstone
• GenesisCare Milton Keynes
• GenesisCare Cambridge
• GenesisCare Chelmsford
• GenesisCare Nottingham
• GenesisCare London Cromwell Hospital
• GenesisCare Oxford
• GenesisCare Portsmouth