Dr Louise Fearfield

Sub-specialties: General Dermatology, Mole Checks, Skin Cancer, Sun Damage, Pre-cancerous lesions, Mole Mapping, Mole Removal, Melanoma, Skin Rashes, Adult Dermatology, Skin Cancer Surgery.

Overview

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Overview

Dr Louise Fearfield has extensive experience in treating and managing skin cancer. She is highly skilled in dermoscopy, teledermatology, and the use of artificial intelligence in the diagnosis of benign and cancerous lesions. She is also a national expert in managing skin rashes associated with cancer and its treatments.

About Dr Louise Fearfield

Dr Louise Fearfield is a Consultant Dermatologist at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust (CWH), recognised internationally for its innovation and use of artificial intelligence in skin cancer diagnosis. She has extensive experience in the diagnosis and management of melanoma, skin cancer, and general dermatological conditions.

She is highly skilled in dermoscopy and the recognition of pre-cancerous, cancerous, and benign lesions, and uses mole mapping as part of skin surveillance and monitoring where appropriate. Dr Fearfield is also a national expert in the management of skin rashes related to newer cancer treatments, including immunotherapy and targeted therapies.

In her early career, she was awarded a Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Oxford for her research on melanoma. She completed her medical training at Oriel College, Oxford, and St Thomas’ Hospital, London, followed by dermatology training at CWH. From 2010 to 2022, she held a joint Consultant post between CWH and The Royal Marsden Hospital (RMH), where she continued to develop her expertise in the diagnosis and management of rare skin cancers.

Between 2018 and 2020, Dr Fearfield was elected Clinical Vice President of the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD), during which time she played a key role in developing national dermatology guidance across the UK, particularly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Fearfield has published extensively in prestigious, peer-reviewed journals throughout her career, including recent papers and book chapters on cutaneous toxicities associated with newer cancer therapies, as well as skin side effects related to cancer and its treatments. As a recognised national expert in this field, she has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international meetings, receiving several prestigious awards for her research.

At CWH, she continues to play an integral role within the innovative teledermatology team, particularly in the application of artificial intelligence. Dr Fearfield was part of the team that won the British Medical Journal Dermatology Team of the Year Award (2020) for the teledermatology skin cancer service, and the Health Service Journal Digital Award for Digital Clinical Safety (2025).

Areas of Expertise

Dr Louise Fearfield commonly treats:

Skin cancer and melanoma
Dermato-oncology with specialist expertise in:
- Skin rashes associated with cancer and its treatment, including:
  - Immunotherapy-related rashes
  - Targeted therapy-related rashes
  - Chemotherapy-related rashes

She offers the following tests and treatments:

Dermoscopy
Mole mapping
Skin surgery and mole removal
Photodynamic therapy for skin lesions

Additional Information

Dr Louise Fearfield holds the following qualifications: MA (Oxon), MBBS, DM (Oxon), FRCP

She is an active member of:

The Royal College of Physicians of London
The Dowling Club
The Royal Society of Medicine
St John's Dermatological Society
The British Association of Dermatologists (BAD)
The British Medical Association
Melanoma Focus Group
BSSCII special interest group BAD
Medical dermatology special interest group BAD

She currently holds clinical posts at:

Consultant Dermatologist, Welbeck, London
Consultant Dermatologist at Chelsea & Westminster NHS Trust Hospital (CWH) London
Private Practice at The Berkshire Independent Hospital, Reading and King Edward VII London

Dr Fearfield is the recipient of the following professional awards:

Academic year 1997-98 Hugh Wallace Registrar Prize, Royal Society of Medicine, Dermatology section.
July 1998 Bristol Cup Poster prize, British Association of Dermatology, Brighton.
October 2020 British Medical Journal Dermatology Team of the Year award winner – Teledermatology skin cancer service
April 2021 Trainee research prize at the Royal Society of Medicine, Dermatology Section– supervising Consultant, Immunotherapy and skin toxicity
July 2021 British Association of Dermatology Annual meeting 2021 Best Poster – case report, Muir torre.
November 2021 Research and innovation quality improvement, CEO CWH winner. Urgent Skin Cancer Teledermatology Service
June 2022 Monthly Registrar prize for June Royal society of Medicine Dermatology section presentations - Monkeypox
June 2022 Best of the best cases for the academic year 2021-22 Royal society of Medicine Dermatology section presentations - Monkeypox
July 2022 British Association of Dermatology Annual meeting Best Registrar paper 2022 – Bullous cutaneous immune adverse events with immune checkpoint inhibitors (lead senior author)
June 2025 Health Service Journal Digital award for Digital Clinical Safety teledermatology and AI skin cancer service at CWH with skin analytics

Research Highlights

Dr Fearfield's notable publications include:

Anusuya Kawsar, Khawar Hussain , Louise Fearfield. How to recognize and manage skin toxicities associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors: a practical approach. Br J Dermatol 2023 Oct 30;189(Suppl 1):i3-i10. doi: 10.1093/bjd/ljad257.
Kawsar A, Edwards C, Patel P, Heywood RM, Gupta A, Mann J, Harland C, Heelan K, Larkin J, Lorigan P, Harwood CA, Matin RN, Fearfield L. Checkpoint inhibitor-associated bullous cutaneous immune-related adverse events: a multicentre observational study. Br J Dermatol. 2022 Dec;187(6):981-987. doi: 10.1111/bjd.21836. Epub 2022 Sep 6. PMID: 35976170
Edwards CL, Comito F, Agraso Busto S, Harland C, Turajlic S, Larkin J, Heelan K, Fearfield L. Cutaneous toxicities in patients with melanoma receiving checkpoint inhibitor therapy: a retrospective review. The experience of a single large specialist institution. Clin Exp Dermatol. 2021 Mar;46(2):338-341
Sinha R, Larkin J, Gore M, Fearfield L. Cutaneous toxicities associated with vemurafenib in 107 patients with BRAF V600E mutation-positive metastatic melanoma, including recognition and management of rare presentations.Br J Dermatol. 2015 Oct;173(4):1024-31. doi: 10.1111/bjd.13958
Fearfield LA, Rowe A, Francis N, Fisher C, McCann B, MacKie RM, Gore ME, Bunker CB Expression of p16, CD95, CD95L and Helix Pomatia agglutinin in relapsing and non-relapsing very thin melanoma. Br J Dermatol 2007 156;440-447

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