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

Post-polypectomy surveillance interval and advanced neoplasia detection rates: a multicenter, retrospective cohort study. Cross AJ, Robbins EC, Pack K et al. Endoscopy (2022) 54(2) 948-958
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35405762

Benefit of Biennial Fecal Occult Blood Screening on Colorectal Cancer in England: A Population-Based Case-Control Study. Castanon A, Parmar D, Massat NJ et al. J Natl Cancer Inst (2022) 114(2) 1262-1269
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35575409

EP01.06-006 Impact of Low Dose CT Screening on Cause of Death in Different Socio-Economic Groups Davies MPA, Vulkan D, Gabe R et al. Journal of Thoracic Oncology (2022) 17(10) s190

Imaging biomarkers of breast cancers originating from the major lactiferous ducts: Ductal adenocarcinoma of the breast, DAB Tabár L, Dean PB, Lee Tucker F et al. European Journal of Radiology (2022) 154(7)

Selection of eligible participants for screening for lung cancer using primary care data O'Dowd EL, Ten Haaf K, Kaur J et al. Thorax (2022) 77(7) 882-890

When alternatives to screening should be the priority. Wald NJ, Duffy SW, Hackshaw A J Med Screen (2022) 29(2) 137
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35735290

Breast cancers originating from the major lactiferous ducts and the process of neoductgenesis: Ductal Adenocarcinoma of the Breast, DAB Tabár L, Dean PB, Lee Tucker F et al. European Journal of Radiology (2022) 153(7)

Breast cancers originating from the terminal ductal lobular units: In situ and invasive acinar adenocarcinoma of the breast, AAB Tabár L, Dean PB, Tucker FL et al. European Journal of Radiology (2022) 152(7)

Barriers and facilitators to colonoscopy following fecal immunochemical test screening for colorectal cancer: A key informant interview study. Kerrison RS, Travis E, Dobson C et al. Patient Educ Couns (2022) 105(2) 1652-1662
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34607734

The projected impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on breast cancer deaths in England due to the cessation of population screening: a national estimation Duffy SW, Seedat F, Kearins O et al. British Journal of Cancer (2022) 126(7) 1355-1361

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.