Research

Close to one million people in Australia will have been diagnosed with cancer in the last 10 years. Today, Australians diagnosed with cancer enjoy significantly better survival prospects: in the 1980s and 1990s, around 50 per cent of people survived five years after diagnosis. By the early 2020s, this had increased to just over 70 per cent.

Many things have contributed to this: public health investments have delivered screening programs and developed evidence for communities and individuals to modify their individual risk through nutrition, exercise and avoiding sun exposure, alcohol consumption and smoking. Research breakthroughs such as immunotherapy, precision medicine and liquid biopsies have transformed diagnosis and treatment. And bioinformatics and AI-assisted tools continue to refine diagnosis, describe disease progression, and shape research questions.

But survival is only part of the story: overall cancer incidence is up, especially in the under-30s. Numerous cancers remain as deadly as they were decades ago, and new therapies do not benefit everyone equally, or come with severe toxicity.

The Department of Cancer Medicine hosts highly collaborative research groups explore diverse aspects of cancer biology, including:

immune detection and targeting of cancers and infection
the interaction between cancer, host and environment
genomic medicine
gastrointestinal cancer, and
the mechanisms of cancer initiation and progression using patient-derived samples from the Alfred Cancer Biobank.

These include some of the most important and pressing questions in cancer research today, including:

Can a systems-level understanding of cancer cell signalling or the tumour microenvironment help to identify novel therapeutic strategies?
Can the current spectrum of cancers sensitive to immunotherapy be extended, and can we identify biomarkers of response to immunotherapy?
How do changes in epigenetic and transcriptional regulators contribute to the different 'hallmarks' of cancer?

Research programs

One way we bring our research together is through the lens of specific themes to illustrate its primary focus. We are expert global leaders in several research areas.

Biostatisics/Data Management - A/Prof Mohammad Asgarhi-Jafarabadi View

Cancer and Host Dynamics - Dr Miles Andrews View

Cancer Development and Treatment - Prof Mark Shackleton View

Cancer Exercise - A/Prof Eva Zopf View

Cancer Genomics - Dr Prache Bhave/Prof Gary Richardson View

Clinical Genomics and Bioinformatics - A/Prof Tu Nguyen View

Colorectal Cancer Surgery - Prof Paul McMurrick View

Drug Discovery/Clinical Trials - Prof Gary Richardson View

Gastrointestinal Translational Research - Prof Alex Boussioutas View

Imaging/Theranostics - Prof Mark Frydenberg View

Translational Immunology - A/Prof Vivek Naranbhai View

Translational Research - Prof Mark Frydenberg/Prof Paul McMurrick View

Tumour Immunology - Dr Jessica Da Gama Duarte View

In addition, our associate member researchers include:

Associate Professor Olivia Cook is a registered nurse, educator and researcher with 20+ years experience in the fields of cancer nursing and women’s health. In July 2025, Olivia commenced a brand new joint appointment as Associate Professor of Cancer Care Nursing at Alfred Health and Monash University. Olivia’s research focuses on cancer nurse education, nurse-led interventions and the specialist cancer nursing workforce and how these each contribute to improving equitable cancer care. She contributes actively to the Australian cancer community through multidisciplinary collaborations, specialist practice networks and committee memberships, post-graduate student supervision, regular journal reviewing and is considered an expert on the value and impact of specialist cancer nursing roles.
- Associate Professor Olivia Cook
Professor Zongyuan Ge is an internationally renowned leader in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into medical research. His interdisciplinary research spans medical AI, biomedical engineering and digital health, leveraging large-scale medical data for improved diagnosis, prognosis and treatment across various cancers. As the founding director of the Monash Medical AI group, he has produced significant research advancing the field of medical analytics.
Nicole Jackson is the Integrative Oncology and Wellness Centre Manager at the Minderoo Wellness Centre. Nicole’s role is pivotal in shaping the Centre’s holistic approach to comprehensive care that looks beyond just treating the disease. The Wellness Centre, with its bright, welcoming design and tranquil environment, embodies the philosophy of integrated oncology.
- Nicole Jackson
Professor Lindy Jeffree is Professor and Director of Neurosurgery, at Bayside Health and Monash University. As Chair of the Brain Cancer Australia National Consortium since 2020, she has been instrumental in developing research infrastructure designed to advance research and improve care, including establishing the Australian Brain Cancer Registry (ABCR) – the first in the world to capture population-wide diagnosis, treatment and outcome data for brain cancer patients.
- Professor Lindy Jeffree
Professor Meng Law is Director of iBRAIN integrated Biomedical Research in AI and Neuroimaging; Professor of Neuroscience, Electrical & Computer Systems Engineering at Monash Translational Medicine, and Director of Radiology at Alfred Health, and a Monash University. Meng and his colleagues have been using AI to analyse MRI scans and study the growth patterns of gliomas, to better understand how gliomas grow naturally and respond to treatment, and to predict how brain tumours will develop. His team uses deep learning AI techniques to improve how gliomas and other brain tumours are detected and categorised. They are working toward generating fully 3D MRI scans of brain tumours, which will offer more detailed insights into tumour growth and predicting response to treatment.
- Professor Meng Law
Professor Victoria Mar heads the Victorian Melanoma Service at The Alfred and collaborating partner hospitals. She is a lead investigator in the Australian Cancer Research Foundation Australian Centre of Excellence in Melanoma Imaging and Diagnosis (ACEMID) program and is co-head of the SkIIN Discovery Program at Monash Translational Medicine. Her research on aggressive melanoma’s characteristics and her leadership and discoveries in skin lesion image analysis, including machine learning approaches, have made a difference in melanoma detection. She is instrumental in shaping melanoma guidelines and clinical practice.
- Professor Victoria Mar
Associate Professor Mastura Monif is a consultant neurologist at Bayside Health and a senior neuroimmunology researcher at Monash Translational Medicine's Department of Neuroscience. Her research program is systematically mapping the neurological complications of CAR-T cell therapy (a type of immunotherapy in which a patient's own T cells are genetically engineered to seek and destroy cancer cells). In a landmark moment for Australian medicine, Monif and her colleagues successfully infused the country's very first Multiple Sclerosis patient with CD19 CAR-T cells — the second such case recorded anywhere in the world.
- A/Prof Mastura Monif