About the CBRC

Why a centre dedicated to behavioural research?

Finding out which behaviours contribute to cancer and how those behaviours can be modified is an important aspect of our goal to minimise the human cost of cancer for all Victorians. This information is shared with our education programs, such as SunSmart, PapScreen and Quit, to help formulate and evaluate education campaigns and policies.

Our objectives

  1. Conduct applied research. Underpin and evaluate preventive, educational and supportive interventions against cancer.
  2. Integrate and disseminate research findings into principles of practice for cancer control policy and programs.
  3. Form productive partnerships with other program and research units, and enhance our work by fostering other appropriate research collaborations.
  4. Contribute to the development of the field of cancer control through publication, conference participation, teaching, research student supervision and staff development.

Research conducted at CBRC is in accordance with ethics processes and our privacy policy. Our Human Research Ethics Committee reviews projects using the national guidelines issued by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Funding for CBRC's work comes from a variety of sources including:

  • Internal funding from The Cancer Council Victoria
  • The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and other competitive research funding bodies
  • Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing
  • VicHealth
  • Victorian Department of Human Services.

Priority research areas

Our main areas of research are smoking; skin cancer; breast cancer; cervical cancer; prostate cancer; bowel cancer; and research with patients. Emerging priority areas are media, nutrition and genetic risk communication.

What does behavioural research involve?

There are 6 categories of behavioural research conducted within CBRC: 

  1. Description and measurement of cancer related behaviours (e.g. surveys of prevalence of smoking in children and adults; surveys of sun protection behaviours)
  2. Etiology of cancer related behaviours (e.g. longitudinal studies of uptake of smoking and skin cancer prevention)
  3. Effects of the environment on cancer-related behaviours (e.g. shade structures at schools; effects of smoking bans on smoking behaviour)
  4. Communication of cancer-related information, where research tries to identify source, message, channel and receiver factors that influence the effective and efficient transmission of cancer related information (e.g. information-seeking patterns of cancer patients; audience responses to anti-smoking advertisements).
  5. Changing cancer-related behaviours, where interventions to change cancer-related behaviours are developed and evaluated (e.g. interventions to encourage consumption of more fruit and vegetables; interventions to encourage cancer patients and their families to call the Cancer Information Service)
  6. Evaluations of cancer-related prevention programs, which provide data to inform judgments about the outcome and value of large-scale programs (e.g. SunSmart evaluations; Quit campaign evaluations; PapScreen evaluations).

Contact us

Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer
Cancer Council Victoria
1 Rathdowne St, Carlton, VIC, 3053
Australia
Phone: 61 3 9635 5436
Fax: 61 3 9635 5380
Email: cbrc@cancervic.org.au

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