Laura completed her undergraduate degree in Human Sciences at Oxford University in 1999 and her Master's degree in Medical Demography in 2001. She joined the Cancer Survival Group in September 2002 where she completed her PhD "International differences in breast cancer survival and 'cure' by social deprivation: a comparative study of England and Australia" in September 2006.
Affiliations
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Teaching
Whilst working at LSHTM Laura was Co-Module Organiser on the Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology module by Distance Learning: one of the advanced modules undertaken by students enrolled in Distance Learning MSc Epidemiology and supervises PhD students working on cancer survival and related methodologies. Laura also taught on the in-house courses Statistical Methods for EPH; Research, Design and Analysis; and Demographic Methods. Additionally she has lectured for over 15 years on the "Cancer Survival: Principles, Methods and Applications" short course. In her post at Newcastle University she has taught on module pertaining to health inequalities, and is developing a new module on advanced statistics and epidemiology to launch in 2026.
Research
Laura's research to date has focussed on inequalities in cancer survival in the UK, specifically examining patterns and trends by deprivation for all cancers as well as the role of screening and pre-diagnostic covariables in explaining socio-economic and ethnic differences in breast cancer survival. She is currently Co-PI on an ESRC-funded study examining the specific influence of the socio-economic environment, independently of the a patient's individual deprivation status, upon survival for 6 common cancers in England. She has developed her interests in early cancer detection more recently, and is currently PI on a Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund grant examining the potential of using a machine learning algorithm on primary care records to identify patients at higher risk or developing pancreatic cancer. Laura has an ongoing interest in screening, and is currently working on several charity-funded grants examining small area profiles and screening engagement, for the national breast, cervical, colorectal cancer screening services, as well as examining inequalities in the uptake of targeted lung health checks in the North East (lung screening) and symptomatic FIT testing for colorectal cancer in two large FIT testing hubs: one in the north and one in the south of England.
Selected Publications
