Professor Karen Canfell

Professor Karen Canfell is a cancer epidemiologist and the inaugural Director of the Daffodil Centre, a joint venture with Cancer Council NSW and a flagship centre of the University of Sydney, Australia. Her research harnesses epidemiological insights integrated into a multidisciplinary program of work including predictive modelling, linked data analysis, clinical trials, stakeholder engagement and implementation science. Her work involves evaluation and translation of new strategies for cancer control, and she has led multiple impact and economic evaluations for government agencies around the world.  Her team’s work underpins the impact and investment case for the 2020 WHO strategic plan for cervical cancer elimination and in the period 2020-21, her team supported WHO in development of detailed clinical management guidelines for cervical screening in low-and-middle-income countries.  In 2020 she initiated, and co-leads, the International Partnership for Resilience in Cancer Systems (I-PaRCS) which works to support decision-making across cancer control, during and emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. Karen has received multiple awards and in 2024, was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Australia for eminent service to medicine as an epidemiologist, particularly through cancer research, to tertiary education, and as a mentor and leader.

Session: Reducing the Incidence and the Impact of Cancer

Date: Thursday 5 December

Time: 1.30pm to 3.00pm