Valerie Beral

Valerie Beral studied medicine at Sydney University, Australia. After a few years of clinical work in Australia, New Guinea and the UK, she spent almost 20 years at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine working in the Department of Epidemiology. In 1988 she became the Director of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit in Oxford.  A major focus of her work has been the role of reproductive, hormonal and infectious agents in cancer; she is Principal Investigator for the Million Women Study cohort of women’s health, and leads international collaborative studies of breast, ovarian and endometrial cancer.  Current research is broadly aimed at understanding the major modifiable causes of morbidity and mortality associated with ageing in women, using the wealth of personal data collected from participants in the Million Women study cohort in combination with routinely-collected information on disease outcomes from linked NHS medical records.  While Professor Beral continues to work on a wide range of cancers, these studies also include work on the causes of heart attack, stroke and blood clots, osteoporosis, fracture, and dementia.