Professor Cust is Deputy Director of the Daffodil Centre, a joint venture between Cancer Council NSW and the University of Sydney. She is also a Faculty member of the Melanoma Institute Australia, affiliated with the University of Sydney. At the Melanoma Institute Australia, she also Chairs the Research Committee and co-leads the ‘Prevention, Risk and Clinical Detection of Melanoma’ research theme. Her position is funded through a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Career Development Fellowship.
She is an internationally recognised cancer epidemiologist with expertise in collaborative, multidisciplinary research with a strong emphasis on translational outcomes. Her research predominantly focuses on melanoma prevention and early detection. She leads programs of research on melanoma risk prediction, risk-stratified cancer prevention and screening, and the genetic epidemiology of melanoma. In collaboration with Professor Mann, Professor Cust led the sunbed research that was instrumental in informing government bans on commercial solaria now in effect across all states of Australia, and received an inaugural Sax Institute Research Action Award to recognise this research and translation efforts.
She is the immediate past-President of the Australasian Epidemiological Association and is a member of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (COSA) Epidemiology Group Executive. She is actively involved in international melanoma consortia, including the GenoMEL (Genetics of Melanoma) Analysis Team, the GEM (Genes, Environment and Melanoma) Steering group, and the InterMEL (Integration of Clinical and Molecular Biomarkers for Melanoma Survival) Investigator team.
She contributed to the chapter on high-risk individuals for the NHMRC/CCA Clinical Practice Guidelines on Melanoma and has authored chapters for internationally renowned melanoma textbooks.
KeywordsCancer Skin Cancer Melanoma
ThemesGynaecological cancer, Melanoma and skin cancer, Public health, Epidemiology, Genetics
Clinical SpecialtyEpidemiology