Our Cancer Epidemiology Division is a world-leading research unit working to produce high-quality, timely evidence identifying the causes of cancer, predictors of cancer risk, and factors affecting survival following a cancer diagnosis, to improve prevention, screening and survival.
Improving our efforts at cancer control is the focus of our multidisciplinary team of epidemiologists and support staff.
Mission and priorities
Cancer is a devastating disease and leading cause of death and ill health.
The Cancer Epidemiology Division shares the overarching mission and values articulated in Cancer Council Victoria’s strategic plan. Within this strategic framework, the organisation’s research goal is to discover and improve prevention, detection, treatment, and care opportunities through ground-breaking cancer research. Research-related priorities relevant to CED include to:
- Create rigorous, timely evidence to inform the most effective practices, laws, policies, programs, and campaigns.
- Enhance and promote our data platforms to ensure they are of maximum value to the research and public health sectors.
- Maintain our scientific leadership in research
Our research themes
- lifestyle cancer epidemiology
- genomic cancer epidemiology
- prostate cancer epidemiology
- epidemiology of the forgotten cancers
- inequalities in cancer outcomes
Our cohort studies
Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study (Health 2020)
Australian Breakthrough Cancer Study (ABC Study)
Our researchers
Head of Division
BCom, BSW, BA, Grad Dip Clin Epi, MSc, PhD
Roger is a cancer epidemiologist with expertise in the analysis of genetic and lifestyle data from observational studies, and in international collaboration.
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Deputy Head of Division
BSc, MScs Comm, PhD
Brigid is a cancer epidemiologist whose research focuses on how physical activity is related to cancer risk, biological mechanisms underlying risk, and health outcomes for cancer survivors.
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Principal Research Fellow
BSc (Hons), Grad Dip Epi Biostat, PhD
Robert is an epidemiologist with over 20 years’ experience in the design and analysis of studies examining the role of genetic and environmental causes of chronic diseases, particularly cancer.
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Principal Research Fellow
MBBS, MSc, MD, PhD
Harindra is a public health physician and cancer epidemiologist with expertise in the analysis of large observational study datasets. Harindra’s research focuses on cancer risk related to lifestyle factors, aetiology and early detection of gastro-oesophageal cancer and precancerous lesions, post-cancer outcomes including metachronous cancer, and cancer prevention policy..
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Senior Research Fellow
BSc, MSc, PhD
Julie is a biostatistician/epidemiologist. Her work focuses mainly on investigating the influence of diet and other modifiable lifestyle factors on cancer risk using data from Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study and family-based case control studies.
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Graham Giles Research Fellow
BA, BSc, MSc, PhD
Nina is an emerging expert in cancer survivorship and inequalities in cancer survival and care. Her work focuses on identifying factors that explain inequalities in cancer survival, applying a novel method of causal mediation analysis to linked population-based health data.
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Research Fellow
MBBS, MPH, PhD
Simon is an early career researcher in cancer epidemiology. His research interests are in behavioural epidemiology and cancer aetiology, particularly the investigation of potentially modifiable factors with application to cancer prevention and survival.
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Senior Research Officer
MExSci MEpi Ph.D
Craig currently holds a Master of Epidemiology, from the University of Melbourne. His work focuses on exploring population-level relevance of risk factors and how family history modifies risk of cancer due to lifestyle factors.
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Senior Research Officer
BSc, AdvDipEpi, MEpi
Jay is an early career epidemiologist with expertise in bioinformatics, population health, and genetic epidemiology. His work spans infectious disease trials, large-scale datasets and Mendelian randomisation, focusing on integrating genetic and proteomic data to advance disease prevention.
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Senior Research Officer
BBioMedSc, MPH
Frances is an early‑career researcher specialising in advanced statistical methods and causal inference. Her work focuses on identifying modifiable risk factors for lymphoma and gastro‑oesophageal cancer using large pooled international datasets.
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Our honorary research fellows
Distinguished Research Fellow (Honorary)
BSc, MSc, PhD
Graham is a cancer epidemiologist with 40 years of research experience. He joined Cancer Council Victoria in 1983 and stepped down as Head of the Cancer Epidemiology Division in 2017.
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Prof. Melissa Southey, OAM
Senior Principal Research Fellow (Honorary)
BSc, Hons, PhD, GradDip, FHGSA, FFSc
Melissa leads research programs focused on multiple-case cancer families, early onset disease and heritable risk factors that are providing the evidence base for best practice guidelines for the clinical management of individuals at high risk of the disease.
Prof. Dallas English
Senior Principal Research Fellow (Honorary)
BSc, MSc, PhD
Dallas is a cancer epidemiologist with over 35 years’ experience. His research interests include the epidemiology of breast, colorectal and prostate cancer and of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease.
A/Prof. Allison Hodge
Principal Research Fellow (Honorary)
BAgSc (Hons), BSc, Grad Dip Diet, MEnvSc, Grad Dip Epi Biostats, PhD
Allison is an epidemiologist with over 20 years’ experience in nutritional epidemiology. She collaborates with researchers in Australia and overseas who have used dietary data from CED studies or collected dietary data using CED-developed dietary questionnaires.
Dr Rebecca Bergin
Research Fellow (Honorary)
PhD
Rebecca is a health services researcher. Her research interests include inequities in cancer care, particularly rural-urban inequities, access and timeliness of cancer care, optimal care pathways, and understanding cancer policymaking.
Want to collaborate?
Our researchers collaborate extensively with other researchers in Australia and overseas. Contact us here or contact our researchers directly.