Bruce Armstrong: WA cancer epidemiologist appointed highest Australia Day honour for his lifetime of research

A leading cancer epidemiologist is just one of two West Australians to receive the highest Australia Day honour this year. Emeritus professor Bruce Armstrong has been part of improving outcomes for just about every cancer you can think of, and has dedicated his life to research and implementing preventative screening programs across the country. He has now been appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in recognition of his “eminent service to medical research, to environmental and genetic cancer epidemiology, to screening service development, to academia, and to public health administration”. Despite an extensive body of work, Dr Armstrong is quick to credit a whole cohort of Australian research for improving cancer outcomes. “Australia has made a very large contribution, both into the prevention as well as treatment of melanoma,” he said. “It’s now certain that breast screening is effective and prevents death and the same goes for cervical cancer. “We should not be having to screen cancer of the cervix, except in some older women, because now we are immunising people against the papillomavirus, which causes the cancer — that also was an Australian discovery. “Australia has done an enormous amount, both in the screening for cancer as well as the prevention of cancer.” Having initially studied to be a physician, Dr Armstrong went to do a PhD in epidemiology at Oxford University in the 1970s under the guidance of Sir Richard Doll, who was one of the first to link smoking to lung cancer. Dr Armstrong said he fell in love with research from the moment he started his PhD and he hasn’t stopped since, first helping to fill gaps in melanoma and skin cancer research when he returned to Australia. Over the decades, he has contributes valuable information to grow scientific and clinical knowledge of breast, bowel, prostate and cervical cancers. He work has included appointments as a senior visiting scientist for the International Agency for Research on Cancer, as a former director of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and as the chairman of dozens of cancer advisory committees. He is now an adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia. and emeritus professor at the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health. Dr Armstrong said one of the proudest moments of his career was preparing a volume of handbooks on cancer prevention, especially on breast cancer screening. “I was around when the earliest of those handbooks were going on and they were designed as guidance to developing countries about what they can do in the way of cancer prevention,” he said. “The last one of those meetings that I went to was on mammography, and there were still quite a few people who didn’t believe that mammography saved lives, “I was very pleased that handbook came out with the recommendation that women should have mammograms, and that’s now something that can be used worldwide. “I think it’s absolutely wonderful to see and to be involved in seeing cancer outcomes improve. It’s one of my great pleasures of life.”