Research

I am currently Chairman of the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study (IBIS) Steering Group and the ATAC trial. I have worked extensively in breast cancer and was the first to report the effect of tamoxifen on contralateral tumours as an indicator of its potential chemopreventive role. I demonstrated that a change in mammographic breast density on endocrine treatment is a biomarker for its effectiveness.

I am involved in studies on the use of HPV assays for cervical screening, the use of flexible sigmoidoscopy for colorectal cancer screening and markers for the behaviour of early prostate cancer.

I am the statistician for several major breast cancer trials and maintain an active interest in developing new statistical methodology, especially in the area of adjustments for non-compliance and cross-over, and multi-arm clinical trials.

Other Activities

• Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences
• Fellow of the Royal Society
• Science Strategy Committee member for Breast Cancer Now
• Research Strategy Group member for Prostate Cancer UK

Major Funding

• 2018-2023- CRUK, Catalyst
• 2017-2020- Barts Charity, Preventative Neurology
• 2014-2019- CRUK, Cancer Prevention
• 2007-2019- CRUK, IBIS II

Recent Publications

Aromatase inhibitors versus tamoxifen in premenopausal women with oestrogen receptor-positive early-stage breast cancer treated with ovarian suppression: a patient-level meta-analysis of 7030 women from four randomised trials Bradley R, Braybrooke J, Gray R et al. The Lancet Oncology (2022) 23(7) 382-392

Comparison of StemPrintER with Oncotype DX Recurrence Score for predicting risk of breast cancer distant recurrence after endocrine therapy Pece S, Sestak I, Montani F et al. European Journal of Cancer (2022) 164(7) 52-61

Clinical performance of methylation as a biomarker for cervical carcinoma in situ and cancer diagnosis: A worldwide study Banila C, Lorincz AT, Scibior-Bentkowska D et al. International Journal of Cancer (2022) 150(7) 290-302

Assessment of Risk Factors and Early Presentations of Parkinson Disease in Primary Care in a Diverse UK Population Simonet C, Bestwick J, Jitlal M et al. JAMA Neurology (2022) (7)

The Lancet Breast Cancer Commission: tackling a global health, gender, and equity challenge Coles CE, Anderson BO, Cameron D et al. The Lancet (2022) (7)

The importance of ethnicity: Are breast cancer polygenic risk scores ready for women who are not of White European origin? Evans DG, van Veen EM, Byers H et al. International Journal of Cancer (2022) 150(7) 73-79

Burden of Mycoplasma genitalium and Bacterial Coinfections in a Population-Based Sample in New Mexico Hammer A, Gravitt PE, Adcock R et al. Sexually transmitted diseases (2021) 48(1) e186-e189

Clinical follow-up practices after cervical cancer screening by co-testing: A population-based study of adherence to U.S. guideline recommendations Perkins RB, Adcock R, Benard V et al. Preventive Medicine (2021) 153(7)

Improving estimation of Parkinson’s disease risk—the enhanced PREDICT-PD algorithm Bestwick JP, Auger SD, Simonet C et al. npj Parkinson's Disease (2021) 7(1)

Mammographic density, endocrine therapy and breast cancer risk: a prognostic and predictive biomarker review Atakpa EC, Thorat MA, Cuzick J et al. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2021(1)

Biography

I received my BSc in Mathematics and Physics from Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California. I then studied an MSc in Mathematics at the University of London. I obtained my PhD in Mathematics from Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California.

I was appointed John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at Queen Mary University of London. In 2017, I was awarded a CRUK Lifetime Achievement Award and a CBE.