Anthony Swerdlow - Profile
Professor Anthony Swerdlow’s work focuses on investigating the causes of cancer in people, along with the long-term effects of cancer treatments. He is the Head of the Epidemiology Section and Director of the Cancer Screening Evaluation Unit at The Institute of Cancer Research. He is also an Honorary Consultant in Epidemiology at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
His current research projects include jointly leading a large and comprehensive study into the causes of breast cancer, involving more than 100,000 British women. He is also examining the long-term risks of cancer and heart disease in Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients, investigating the causes of brain tumours, leukaemia and male breast cancer, and researching breast and other cancer screening programmes in the UK.
“I am constantly fascinated by the varying problems and solutions of epidemiological research. This field of cancer research brings together medicine, statistical analysis and assessment of the effects of people’s behaviours and environments, which is both intriguing and, I hope, worthwhile,” Professor Swerdlow says.
Professor Swerdlow trained in medicine at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and held junior posts in clinical medicine before beginning his career in epidemiology. He worked at the University of Glasgow’s Department of Community Medicine and the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys before moving in 1987 to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Professor Swerdlow joined the ICR in 2000, and says it provides an excellent intellectual and physical environment for epidemiological research.
“The ICR is focussed on undertaking first class research, and the facilities and atmosphere are very much directed to facilitating it. It is a great place to work,” he says.
Professor Swerdlow has been elected a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, the Institute of Biology and the Academy of Medical Sciences, and was a member of the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones.
It is Professor Swerdlow’s ambition to contribute toward determining the causes of cancer and therefore preventing its occurrence. His hobbies are travelling with his wife, especially to France, running, and gardening.
