Rate My Professor Stephen Duffy

Professor Stephen Duffy is Professor of Cancer Screening at Queen Mary University of London in the Wolfson Institute of Population Health. A statistician by training, he holds a BSc from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc from Imperial College London, and is a Chartered Statistician of the Royal Statistical Society. He has held positions in the UK, Singapore, France, Sweden and Russia. His research focuses on cancer screening and early diagnosis, including randomised trials such as the Swedish Two-County Trial of breast cancer screening, the UK Trial of Flexible Sigmoidoscopy and the UK Lung Screening Trial. Since 2010 he has directed the Policy Research Unit in Cancer Awareness, Screening and Early Diagnosis, a multi-institution collaboration funded by the Department of Health that evaluates screening programmes, develops innovations to improve outcomes and reduce harms, and examines behavioural and symptomatic routes to earlier cancer diagnosis. He has twice received the Alexander Margulis Prize for Scientific Excellence from the Radiological Society of North America for his contributions to breast screening research.

Professor Duffy’s work encompasses evaluation of artificial intelligence tools in screening and primary care diagnosis, assessment of NHS Cancer Screening Programmes, behavioural interventions to increase screening participation, studies on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer services, estimation of costs and benefits of risk-based screening regimens, and innovations in bowel cancer screening using faecal immunochemical testing. Key publications include reports on the impact of consecutive screening mammography on breast cancer mortality, results from the UK Age trial of mammographic screening from age 40, analyses of ductal carcinoma in situ detection and interval cancers, and findings from the UKLS lung cancer screening trial. His research has informed national screening policy and contributed to reductions in cancer mortality through evidence-based improvements in screening practice and early detection strategies.