Melinda Protani

Dr Melinda Protani is an epidemiologist with over 15 years experience in research and tertiary education. She is the current Program Director for the Master of Epidemiology at the University of Queensland (UQ) and holds the position of Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health. Her research is focused on cancer aetiology, survivorship and patterns of care, with a particular interest in inequity in access to health services and the receipt of optimal cancer care. Dr Protani has experience in a number of methods including medical record audits, surveys of the general population, patient groups and clinicians, and data linkage using registry and administrative datasets. Her research expertise spans biomedical and clinical sciences, epidemiology, health sciences, health equity, health services and systems, oncology and carcinogenesis, public health, rural and remote health services, and social determinants of health.

Dr Protani obtained her PhD from UQ's School of Population Health in 2014, with the thesis "Examining the role of obesity in the survival of women with breast and ovarian cancers". She also completed a Masters (Coursework) of Public Health, a Bachelor of Science, and a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education at UQ. Among her key publications are the systematic review and meta-analysis "Effect of obesity on survival of women with breast cancer" published in 2010 in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment; "Obesity and Ovarian Cancer Survival: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis" in Cancer Prevention Research in 2012; "Pre-diagnosis diet and survival after a diagnosis of ovarian cancer" in the British Journal of Cancer in 2017; "Nitrogen-based Bisphosphonate Use and Ovarian Cancer Risk in Women Aged 50 Years and Older" in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 2022; "Use of an emulated trial to investigate the association between use of nitrogen-based bisphosphonates and risk of epithelial ovarian cancer" in the International Journal of Epidemiology in 2024; and "Rates of colorectal cancer diagnosis and mortality in people with severe mental illness: results from Australia’s National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme" in Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences in 2024. These works highlight her contributions to understanding factors influencing cancer survival and treatment disparities.

Professional Email: m.protani@uq.edu.au