Anne Cust is a Professor of Cancer Epidemiology who heads the Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research group, Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney. She is also a Faculty member of the Melanoma Institute Australia. She is currently the recipient of a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Career Development Fellowship. Her qualifications include a PhD from The University of Sydney and the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France, MPH(Hons) from The University of Sydney, BSc from The University of Queensland and BA from The University of Queensland.
Professor Cust worked in perinatal research and neonatal clinical trials at The University of Sydney for 5 years before completing a PhD in cancer epidemiology from 2004-2007. Her PhD thesis examined the Lifestyle and metabolic determinants of endometrial cancer. She was enrolled under a cotutelle agreement between the School of Public Health, University of Sydney, and the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France. In Lyon, she was based at the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer, where she had the opportunity to work with investigators on the large European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort study. In 2007, she received the prestigious Cancer Institute NSW Premier's Award for Outstanding Research Scholar. Subsequently, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Molecular, Environmental, Genetic and Analytic Epidemiology, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, gaining additional training in genetic epidemiology. She returned to Sydney in January 2011.
Professor Cust leads a multi-state NHMRC-funded Centre of Research Excellence in Melanoma. She is an investigator on several international melanoma consortia - including the Melanoma Genetics Consortium (GenoMEL), Genes, Environment and Melanoma (GEM) Consortium and InterMEL melanoma survival study. As a lead investigatoron the Australian Melanoma Family Study, she investigates the genetic and environmental causes of melanoma especially in young people diagnosed under 40 years of age. She also leads several translational research projects and clinical trials related to melanoma prevention, early detection and survisorship. She has been a chief investigator on grants from the NHMRC, US National Institutes of Health - National Cancer Institute, Sydney Catalyst, Ramaciotti Foundation, Victorian Cancer Agency and the Fondation de France.
Professor Cust has over 170 publications, and is a reviewer for more than 50 international journals. As primary supervisor, she has supervised 4 PhD students and 2 MPhil students to completion. She is the immediate Past-President of the Australasian Epidemiological Association (AEA) and was a Board member of the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Trials Group (MASC Trials) for 6 years. In 2015, she was awarded the inaugural Sax Institute Research Action Award for translation of research into health policy health policy, and in 2018 she received the NSW Premier’s Award for Outstanding Cancer Research Fellow of the Year.
KeywordsCancer Skin Cancer Melanoma
ThemesGynaecological cancer, Melanoma and skin cancer, Public health, Epidemiology, Genetics
Clinical SpecialtyEpidemiology