Rate My Professor Fiona Day

Fiona Day is a Conjoint Associate Professor in the School of Medicine and Public Health, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, at the University of Newcastle. She is a Staff Specialist Medical Oncologist in the Department of Medical Oncology at Calvary Mater Newcastle, where she has conducted research since October 2012. Her qualifications include BSc(Hons), MBBS, PhD from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Melbourne (2010-2012), FRACP, and SpecCertClinRes(Oncology). Her doctoral research focused on identifying different subtypes of colorectal cancer to facilitate targeted treatments. Prior to her current role, she completed a Medical Oncology Fellowship at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne from February 2009 to February 2010.

Dr Day's research specializations center on advancing treatments for gastrointestinal cancers, including colorectal, pancreatic, and oesophageal cancers, as well as lung cancer and skin cancer. She leads translational research, clinical trials for novel therapies, and studies on treatment cost-effectiveness. Notable contributions include serving as principal investigator in multiple colorectal cancer trials and leading the PALEO phase II clinical trial, sponsored by the Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Trials Group, which investigates chemoradiotherapy with concurrent durvalumab for palliative management of oligometastatic oesophageal and gastro-oesophageal carcinoma with dysphagia. She is a reviewer for international scientific journals, Cancer Council NSW, and the National Health and Medical Research Council. Her key publications encompass 'Circulating Tumor DNA Analysis Guiding Adjuvant Therapy in Stage II Colon Cancer: The DYNAMIC Trial' (New England Journal of Medicine, 2022), 'Implementing Smoking Cessation Interventions for Tobacco Users With Cancer: A Clinical Practice Guideline' (JAMA Oncology, 2023), 'Chemoradiotherapy with concurrent durvalumab for the palliative treatment of oligometastatic oesophageal and gastrooesophageal carcinoma with dysphagia: a single arm phase II clinical trial (PALEO)' (BMC Cancer, 2022), 'Phase I trial of hypofractionated chemoradiotherapy in the palliative management of esophageal and gastro-esophageal cancer' (Radiation Oncology, 2022), and 'Immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma in Australia: a retrospective real world cohort study' (2024). As part of HMRI's Cancer Detection and Therapy research program, she contributes to efforts addressing skin cancers such as squamous cell carcinoma.