Dr Alison Berner, BA Hons, MBBS, MSc, PhD, FRCP, FHEA.

Profile

Alison is a Clinical Senior Lecturer and an NIHR Advanced Fellow within the Centre for Cancer Screening, Prevention & Early Diagnosis. She is an Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital where she treats gynaecologic malignancies, and Chelsea & Westminster Hospitals, where she leads the UK Cancer and Transition Service (UCATS), a world first national clinic to integrate local oncology and gender affirming care or transgender and gender diverse people in the UK.

Her research centres on reducing cancer care inequalities according to sex, gender and sexual orientation with an emphasis on coproduction. Her portfolio spans molecular biology, epidemiological, qualitative, interventional and mixed method studies.  

Alison’s NIHR Advanced Fellowship, TRANSforming Cancer Care, aims to improve cancer care for TGD people by identifying and rectifying evidence gaps regarding their healthcare needs and clinical outcomes, and developing infrastructure to explore the biological role of hormones in their cancers.

She is also chief investigator (CI) of the Self-TI study, investigating feasibility and acceptability of self-testing for human papillomavirus in transgender individuals and the TransPRIDE study, which will determine reference ranges for prostate-specific antigen in trans and non-binary people with a prostate.  

Alison is part of the SHARE collaborative for health equity and a co-investigator on their Queer Health Survey.

She is a Trustee of the OUTpatients LGBTIAQ+ cancer charity and President of British Association Gender Identity Specialists. Passionate about education, she is also co-author of the Cancer in LGBTQ Populations chapter of the ESMO-ASCO global curriculum.

Research

Research Interests:

Cancer screening

Cancer treatment

LGBTQ health

Transgender health

Health inequities

Epidemiology

Qualitative research

Gynaecologic cancers

Breast cancer

Prostate cancer

Coproduction

Colorectal cancer

Human papillomavirus

Cancer genomics

Epigenetics

Publications

Please click through to see a full list of Alison's publications

Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Care for Sexual Minority Women and Transgender People.

Rationale and design of the Self-TI Study protocol: a cross-sectional human papillomavirus self-testing pilot study among transgender adults in England.

Prevalence of cancer risk factors among transgender and gender diverse individuals: a cross-sectional analysis using UK primary care data.

UK recommendations for the management of transgender and gender-diverse patients with inherited cancer risks.

Attitudes of transgender men and non-binary people to cervical screening: a cross-sectional mixed-methods study in the UK.

Supervision

I am open to inquiries about PhD supervision on topics related to cancer risk, screening, treatment, outcomes and patient experience, wider LGBTQ+ health and health inequities.

I currently supervise:

Dr Ela Ury (UWE), NIHR, “Investigating the left lateral position for cervical screening” (External Supervisor)