Keynote Speakers

Professor Claire Foster

Claire Foster is Professor of Psychosocial Oncology and Director of the Centre for Psychosocial Research in Cancer at the University of Southampton. She has led research in the field of cancer survivorship and implications of cancer genetic risk for over 20 years. She and the CentRIC team work closely with patients and colleagues across the UK and internationally to understand the impact of cancer on people’s daily lives and use this knowledge to co-create solutions to support people to live with and manage this impact as well as possible.

Title: Decision making in the context of genetic risk

This talk will explore what it means to have an increased genetic risk for cancer and what decisions people may face in relation to genetic testing and risk management. It will also illustrate how decision making may be incredibly complex and examine evidence to inform how people can be helped to make such decisions.

Professor David French PhD CPsychol FEHPS

David French is Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Manchester. He has published over 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He was co-Editor for the Psychological Society journal: British Journal of Health Psychology for 5 years (2013-2017). In 2022 he became President Elect of the European Health Psychology Society.

Title: Should screening for breast cancer be risk stratified? Assessing benefits and harms, and the way forward

It is possible to accurately estimate breast cancer risk for women of screening age, and thereby provide tailored screening and prevention offers according to risk estimates. I will present a series of linked studies that concern the feasibility of incorporating this into the NHS Breast Screening Programme. In particular, I will present findings from a recently completed NIHR programme grant which offered risk stratification to over 19,000 women in North West England.

Dr Jo Waller

Dr Jo Waller is a Reader in Cancer Behavioural Science at King’s College London. With a background in health psychology, she was worked for over 20 years on the psychological and behavioural aspects of cancer prevention, screening and early diagnosis. Her current projects focus on assessing the acceptability and psychological impact of novel cancer screening tools including multi-cancer early detection tests, HPV self-sampling, AI and risk-stratification in breast screening, and the Cytosponge for early detection of oesophageal cancer.

Title: The role of health psychology in cervical cancer screening: reflections on the challenges and rewards of policy-focused research

My talk will discuss my team’s research on cervical screening, including work focusing on barriers to uptake, psychological impact and broader communication challenges, particularly in relation to HPV-based screening. As well as reflecting on the contribution psychology and behavioural science can make in this field, I will share some experiences of successful and less successful attempts to do work that influences cancer screening policy and practice.