Research

Projects List:

• Breast and Bowel Cancer Screening
• Risk Estimates of Developing Breast Cancer into routine breast screening practice
• Policy Research Unit on cancer awareness, screening and early diagnosis
• Faecal immunochemical testing (FIT) for adenoma surveillance
• The validation of interim outcome measures for the evaluation of interventions promoting increased cancer awareness and early detection
• Strategies to reduce social gradient in Bowel Cancer Screening
• Natural history estimation for screening evaluation and planning
• A Comparison of TOMosynthesis with digital mammography in the UK NHS breast screening programme
• Promoting breast awareness and early presentation among Black women 25-50
• UKLS Lung Screening Trial
• Overdiagnosis in the Mammography Breast

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

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

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

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

Comprehensive workplace intervention for cancer prevention in China (WECAN): protocol for a stepped-wedge, cluster-randomised controlled trial Li Y, Sun K, Wang B et al. BMJ Open (2023) 13(1) e072405-e072405

The challenging imaging and histopathologic features of diffusely infiltrating breast cancer Tabár L, Dean PB, Lee Tucker F et al. European Journal of Radiology (2023) 161(7)

Abstract PD14-01: PD14-01 A model to assess the utility of risk-based screening algorithms Atakpa EC, Cuzick J, Duffy SW et al. Cancer Research (2023) 83(10) pd14-01-pd14-01

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.