Prof Prue Francis

Professor Prudence Francis is Clinical Head of Breast Medical Oncology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and also a consultant Medical Oncologist at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. She holds an academic appointment as Professor at The University of Melbourne.

Professor Francis graduated from The University of Melbourne and completed medical oncology training in Melbourne and in New York at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre. She returned to Australia in 1994 and was the first female medical oncologist appointed at Peter MacCallum.

She is a breast cancer clinician researcher committed to improving the outcomes and care for patients with early and advanced breast cancer through clinical trials, associated translational research and education. She has focused much of her research on randomized breast cancer clinical trials, that have included prospective tissue collection to enable future translational research.

From 2017-2021 Professor Francis chaired the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of the Breast Cancer Trials cooperative group based in Newcastle (previously known as Australia & New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials group or ANZBCTG), having been the SAC Deputy Chair for the group from 2012-2017.

Professor Francis is internationally recognized in the breast cancer field and is a member of three groups that publish and influence international breast cancer treatment guidelines: the St. Gallen Primary Breast Cancer International Consensus Panel, the Advanced Breast Cancer (ABC) International Consensus Panel, and the Steering Committee for the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) based in Oxford.

Professor Francis is known for her development and leadership of the international SOFT and TEXT breast cancer trials that have led to changes in international practice in the management of young women with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer. She was first author of publications in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2015 and 2018 detailing results of this research.