Dr Judith Offman

Profile

Profile

I joined the Centre for Cancer Screening, Prevention and Early Diagnosis at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health in 2022, where I was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Cancer Prevention and Early Detection. I am a cancer epidemiologist with prior training as a molecular biologist. My research focuses on improving cancer screening and early detection, particularly in breast and lung cancers. My two main areas of focus are reducing health inequalities in cancer screening and validating novel technologies or screening approaches to ensure they can be implemented into standard practice.

I am the Principal Investigator on the REPAIRS study, which aims to reduce pain in breast screening, funded by Breast Cancer Now. I also lead a work package in the EU Horizon 2020-funded MyPeBS trial, which compares personalised, risk-stratified breast cancer screening to standard approaches. I have been supervising projects on the validation of AI in lung cancer pathology and breast screening, as well as the impact of AI on reader behaviour.

Recently, I led an evaluation of initiatives to improve uptake in the NHS Breast Screening Programme which have directly influenced NHS policy. In the past I had leading roles on clinical trials in breast cancer screening and the now completed BEST3 (Barrett’s oESophagus Trial 3) trial in early detection of Barrett’s oesophagus. I am currently the trial statistician on several prospective prostate cancer screening studies including the IMPACT study (Identification of Men with a genetic predisposition to ProstAte Cancer: Targeted screening in men at higher genetic risk and controls).

I collaborate with academics, researchers, and healthcare professionals nationally and internationally, including from CRUK, King’s College London, Imperial College London, University of Warwick, National Cancer Institute (USA), and International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). I actively work with patients and the public in designing, conducting and disseminating research. I also collaborate with industry on new diagnostic tools for cancer.

Research

Research Interests:

The aim of my research is to identify ways to prevent cancer altogether or to diagnose it early when it is easier to treat successfully. The core of my research interest therefore comprises, firstly, the identification of individuals at high risk for developing cancer, so that these patients can be tested, and, secondly, the diagnosis of pre-cancerous lesions, so that these can be removed or patients can undergo regular surveillance. My research focuses mainly on oesophageal cancer (OC) and malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), but I have also been involved in research on breast cancer screening. I am particularly interested in the use of new diagnostic tools, including machine learning models, in early cancer detection.

My research expertise covers both observational and experimental epidemiology and includes cohort studies and randomised controlled trials. I am particularly interested in study design and I use mixed methods, including patient engagement, to optimise clinical trial design. Furthermore, I also have a strong interest in cancer risk factors and their impact patient outcomes. Lastly, I also have extensive experience working with large datasets from primary and secondary care and other health datasets.

Publications

Please follow through to see complete list of Judith's publications.

Eastwood, M., Marc, S. T., Gao, X., Sailem, H., Offman, J., Karteris, E., Fernandez, A. M., Jonigk, D., Cookson, W., Moffatt, M., Popat, S., Minhas, F., Robertus, J. L. Malignant Mesothelioma Subtyping of Tissue Images via Sampling Driven Multiple Instance Prediction. (2022). In: Michalowski, M., Abidi, S.S.R., Abidi, S. (eds) Artificial Intelligence in Medicine. AIME 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13263. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09342-5_25

Maroni, R., Barnes, J., Offman, J. (joint first authors), Scheibl, F., Smith, S.G., Debiram-Beecham, I., Waller, J., Sasieni, P.D., Fitzgerald, F.G., Rubin, G., BEST3 Consortium, Walter, F.M. Patient-reported experiences and views on the Cytosponge test: a mixed-methods analysis from the BEST3 trial. BMJ Open. 2022; 12: e054258. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054258.

Offman, J., Pesola, F. (joint first author), Fitzgerald, R.C., Hamilton, W., Sasieni, P. Impact of Barrett esophagus diagnoses and endoscopies on esophageal cancer survival in the UK: a cohort study. Cancer Medicine. 2022; 11:1160-71. https://doi.org/10.1002/cam4.4484.

Fitzgerald, R., di Pietro, M., O’Donavan, M., Maroni, R., Muldrew, B., Debiram-Beecham, I., Gehrung, M., Offman, J., et al. A Randomised, Controlled Trial of an offer of Cytosponge-TFF3 test compared with usual care to identify Barrett’s oesophagus in primary care. The Lancet. 2020, 396(10247):333-344. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31099-0.

Offman, J., Pesola, F., Sasieni, P. Trends and projections in adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus in England from 1971 to 2037. British Journal of Cancer. 2018; 118(10):1391-1398. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-018-0047-4.

Supervision

Amy Tickle, Cancer Research UK, "Indicators of progress towards reducing cancer mortality through early diagnosis".

Soumya Arun, Barts Charity, "Evaluation of validations of artificial intelligence modalities for digital pathology-based diagnosis of lung cancer: a systematic review". (Start Date: Dec 2021)