Karen Canfell Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2020

Karen Canfell

Karen Canfell is the inaugural Director of the Daffodil Centre, a flagship centre of the University of Sydney and a joint venture with Cancer Council NSW, Australia. She is also Professor & NHMRC Leadership Fellow, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney. Her research involves evaluation and translation of new strategies for cancer control, and she has led multiple impact and economic evaluations for government agencies in Australia and internationally. For example, her work underpins the transformation of the National Cervical Screening Program in Australia, which in 2017 moved to HPV DNA testing to replace Pap smears and the Daffodil Centre team have been actively engaged in the evaluation of lung cancer screening. She is active in global health and her team’s work underpins the impact and investment case for the 2020 WHO strategic plan for cervical cancer elimination; in the period 2020-21, her team has supported WHO in development of detailed clinical management guidelines for cervical screening in low-income countries. In 2020 she initiated, and co-leads with Dr. Freddie Bray from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the International Partnership for Resilience in Cancer Systems (I-PaRCS) with key partners IARC, the International Cancer Screening Network, the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and the Daffodil Centre. I-PaRCS works to support decision-making across cancer control, during and emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.