Understanding the causes of the rising incidence of thyroid cancer

The project is based in the discipline of epidemiology – that is, understanding the causes and outcomes of disease (in this instance thyroid cancer) at the population level.

Thyroid cancer incidence has risen rapidly in the last 25 years. Two possible causes are: rising prevalence of carcinogens; and increased detection of subclinical disease.

We are conducting a population-based case-control study in order to:
• Investigate thyroid cancer aetiology
• Describe diagnostic pathways for thyroid cancer.

Because some evidence suggests the causes and prognosis of thyroid cancer differ by BRAF oncogene mutation status we will we will use case-control/case-case analyses to investigate aetiology and diagnostic pathways by mutational subtype (ascertained by immunohistochemistry).

We are collecting data from ~1000 cases and 1000 controls including:
• Health and lifestyle data (questionnaire)
• Medical records and stored tumour samples
• Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) data
• Interview data from cases about how they came to be diagnosed

This project will focus on investigating the aetiology of thyroid cancer using the questionnaire data and information about the tumour mutational status. Where appropriate routinely collected health service and medicines data (MBS and PBS) will be used to define exposure status.

Some experience/training in statistics and data analysis (or interest/ability to undertake such training) is required and a background in epidemiology and/or an interest in cancer are highly desirable.

Please contact the supervisor directly to discuss the project before applying for the scholarship, provide an academic CV and degree transcripts.

For further information on this research group: http://www.qimrberghofer.edu.au/lab/cancer-causes-and-care/