Breast Cancer

Research Overview

The Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics has been studying breast cancer since the early 1990s, when it began recruiting Australian families to participate in a family study of early onset breast cancer, collecting data on potential risk factors, family history and biospecimens.

It has grown to become a world-leading research group, contributing to better detection, prevention and treatment for breast cancer in Australia and globally.

Today, the group is engaged in wide-ranging research including genetic and environmental influences of breast cancer; genetic epidemiology research using state-of-the-art technologies and large-scale data; precision and AI approaches to breast cancer screening; predicting breast cancer risk; and factors in young onset breast cancer. Within our group, we also support two registries managing biospecimens and over 75,000 study participants.

Staff

Unit Head
Associate Professor Shuai Li
Founding Member The Late Professor John Hopper

Find our researchers and professional staff listed under the specific research program for which they work. Graduate research opportunities are available. Please contact the individual programs to learn more.

Collaborators

Our research programs are based in national and international collaborations, some of which began in the early 1990s with our first breast cancer studies. Major collaborations include the Breast Cancer Family Study, an international registry of tens of thousands of participants from thousands of families who have generously provided questionnaire data, blood samples, and access to tumour tissue for future research; and Twins Research Australia, an Australia-wide registry of over 75,000 twins and multiple-birth families who have been involved in over 260 studies across 40 years.

Other collaborators are listed under each of our research programs.

Funding

Our unit's research funding builds on our National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence for Breast Cancer Screening and the National Institutes of Health (USA) Breast Cancer Family Registry Cohort. Other funding is listed under each of our research programs.