Professor Stephen Duffy

BSc, MSc, CStat
Professor of Cancer Screening
Group Leader, Research Theme Lead
Research Focus

My research activities are concentrated on cancer screening and early diagnosis. There is potential for considerable saving of lives from cancer if it were diagnosed at an earlier stage.

Key Publications

Long term effects of once-only flexible sigmoidoscopy screening after 17 years of follow-up: the UK Flexible Sigmoidoscopy Screening randomised controlled trial. Lancet (2017) 389:1299-1311. PMID: 28236467

Screen detection of ductal carcinoma in situ and subsequent incidence of invasive interval breast cancers: a retrospective population-based study. Lancet Oncol (2016) 17(1):109-14. PMID: 26655422

Mammographic surveillance in women younger than 50 years who have a family history of breast cancer: tumour characteristics and projected effect on mortality in the prospective, single arm FH01 study. Lancet Oncol (2010) 11: 1127-34. PMID: 21093374

Swedish Two-County Trial: impact of mammographic screening on  breast cancer mortality during three decades. Radiol (2011) 260: 658-63. PMID: 21712474 

Major Funding
  • 2019-2023- NIHR, Policy Research Unit in Cancer Awareness, Screening and Early Diagnosis, £5M 

Other Activities
  • Member of the National Screening Committee
  • Screening Editor, European Guidelines Development Group for Breast Cancer Screening and Early Diagnosis
  • Member of the Breast Screening Advisory Committee
  • Member of the Bowel Screening Advisory Committee
Research

Projects List:

Other Activities
  • Member of the National Screening Committee
  • Screening Editor, European Guidelines Development Group for Breast Cancer Screening and Early Diagnosis
  • Member of the Breast Screening Advisory Committee
  • Member of the Bowel Screening Advisory Committee
Major Funding
  • 2019-2023- NIHR, Policy Research Unit in Cancer Awareness, Screening and Early Diagnosis, £5M 
Recent Publications

The cost-effectiveness of risk-stratified breast cancer screening in the UK. Hill H, Kearns B, Pashayan N et al. Br J Cancer (2023) (2)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37848734

A randomised controlled trial testing acceptance of practitioner-referral versus self-referral to stop smoking services within the Lung Screen Uptake Trial Kotti T, Katsampouris E, Ruparel M et al. Addiction (2023) 118(7) 2007-2013

Imaging biomarkers are underutilised but highly predictive prognostic factors for the more fatal breast cancer subtypes Tabár L, Dean PB, Tucker FL et al. European Journal of Radiology (2023) 166(7)

Impact of radiographer immediate reporting of X-rays of the chest from general practice on the lung cancer pathway (radioX): A randomised controlled trial Woznitza N, Ghimire B, Devaraj A et al. Thorax (2023) 78(7) 890-894

Reply to Yaffe, M.J. Correction for Self-Selection in Breast Cancer Screening. Comment on “Dibden et al. Worldwide Review and Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies Measuring the Effect of Mammography Screening Programmes on Incidence-Based Breast Cancer Mortality. Cancers 2020, 12, 976” Dibden A, Offman J, Duffy SW et al. Cancers (2023) 15(7)

Effects on Cancer Prevention from the COVID-19 Pandemic. Duffy SW, de Jonge L, Duffy TE Annu Rev Med (2023) (2)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37625124

Correction To: Quantifying the effects of risk-stratified breast cancer screening when delivered in real time as routine practice versus usual screening: the BC-Predict non-randomised controlled study (NCT04359420) (British Journal of Cancer, (2023), 128, 11, (2063-2071), 10.1038/s41416-023-02250-w) Gareth Evans D, McWilliams L, Astley S et al. British Journal of Cancer (2023) 128(7) 2140

Quantifying the effects of risk-stratified breast cancer screening when delivered in real time as routine practice versus usual screening: the BC-Predict non-randomised controlled study (NCT04359420) Gareth Evans D, McWilliams L, Astley S et al. British Journal of Cancer (2023) 128(7) 2063-2071

Beneficial effect of repeated participation in breast cancer screening upon survival. Smith RA, Duffy SW, Yen AM-F et al. Journal of Clinical Oncology (2023) 41(10) 552-552

Barriers to colonoscopy in UK colorectal cancer screening programmes: Qualitative interviews with ethnic minority groups Kerrison RS, Gil N, Travis E et al. Psycho-Oncology (2023) 32(7) 779-792

For additional publications, please click here
Team

Statistician
Oleg Blyuss, Amanda Dibden, Roberta Maroni, Daniel Vulkan

Study Coordinator
Jonathan Myles

Senior Data Manager
Dharmishta Parmar

Administrator
Oley Begum

Biography

I am a statistician by training, educated at the University of Edinburgh and Imperial College, London. I have worked in the UK, Singapore, France, Sweden and Russia.

For the last three decades, my research has been mainly in cancer epidemiology, prevention and screening. I worked on the pioneering Swedish Two-County Trial of breast cancer screening, on which the UK's national breast screening programme was based.

Since then I have taken a major role in a number of other trials of cancer screening, in breast, colorectal and lung cancer. These include the UK Trial of Flexible Sigmoidoscopy whose results changed national policy within weeks of publication, and the FH01 study of annual mammography in young women at enhanced familial risk of breast cancer, which contributed to the NICE guidelines on breast cancer risk management.

I am currently Director of the Policy Research Unit in Cancer Awareness, Screening and Early Diagnosis, funded by the Department of Health.

It is a collaboration between researchers from seven institutions (Queen Mary University of London, UCL, King's College London, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Hull York Medical School, Durham University and Peninsula Medical School). The aim of the unit is to carry out research to inform policy to promote earlier diagnosis of cancer, symptomatically or by screening, and as a consequence bring down mortality from cancer.

In our strand of the Unit in Queen Mary University of London, our team concentrates on research aimed at evaluating cancer screening programmes, and devising innovations to these which will improve their effect on death from cancer, enhance their acceptability to the public and minimise side effects of screening, such as false positive rates.