RESEARCHER AMONG THE WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL SCIENTIFIC MINDS

The career of breast cancer researcher Professor John Forbes AM has been recognised, with the release of Thomson Reuters list of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds: 2015”.

The report lists 3,000 researchers around the world, who have published the greatest number of highly cited papers over an 11 year period from 2003 to 2013. Professor Forbes is one of 103 Australian researchers on the highly cited list and is the only Australian Oncologist in the field of clinical medicine. Australia is ranked 5th on the list behind the US, UK, Germany and China.

Professor Forbes is the Director of Research at the Australia and New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group (ANZBCTG), and is Professor of Surgical Oncology at the University of Newcastle and Director of Surgical Oncology at the Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital.

In 2015, Professor Forbes was awarded the NSW Premier’s Award for Outstanding Cancer Researcher of the Year. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2012 for “service to medicine in the field of breast cancer research, to the development of improved clinical practice standards and service to the community”.

Professor Forbes was a founding member of the ANZBCTG, which is the largest, independent oncology clinical trials research group in Australia and New Zealand. For more than 35 years, the ANZBCTG has conducted a national clinical trials research program for the treatment, prevention and cure of breast cancer. Professor John Forbes has Chaired and Co-chaired many international clinical trials, including the IBIS-I and IBIS-II prevention clinical trials.

Professor Forbes says he is honoured to be recognised with such an esteemed group of researchers from around the world.

“Breast cancer clinical trials research has led to improved survival rates and new treatments for women at risk for or diagnosed with this disease, particularly over the last 20 years. The success of this research has been in the collaboration between researchers, women who participate in clinical trials and our supporters in the community. The research has led to a greater than 30% fall in breast cancer mortality over this time. I sincerely thank them for their support and contribution to the lives of women and their families,” said Professor Forbes.

The ANZBCTG’s research program involves multicentre clinical trials, with 87 institutions and over 700 researchers throughout Australia and New Zealand. More than 14,000 women have participated in ANZBCTG breast cancer clinical trials. The fundraising department of the ANZBCTG is the Breast Cancer Institute of Australia (BCIA).

Media contact: Anna Fitzgerald, ANZBCTG Communications Manager

Phone: 02 4925 5255 or 0400 304 224