Larry Kessler

Cancer Research UK Scholar Award, Cancer Research UK - Oncology

In 2018 there were almost 10 million cancer deaths worldwide. New promising technologies are often called precision medicine. The effectiveness of precision medicine depends on accurate diagnostic testing, but the field of precision medicine generally lacks data on clinical utility. The CanTest framework developed in the UK, suggests that post-implementation surveillance provides an opportunity to examine effects on the health care system and on important population health indicators, such as stage of disease and survival. However, these opportunities are underutilised. Larry proposes a paradigm to enhance these diagnostic tests while simultaneously reducing their potential peril to patients and the health care system. Larry is Professor in the Department of Health Services in the School of Public Health, University of Washington. He has over 40 years of experience in health services research and his work in cancer surveillance at the National Cancer Institute of NIH substantially changed the way in which the US performs cancer surveillance. He will continue this long-standing commitment to improving cancer surveillance by developing an international repository for post-market collection of evidence on precision diagnostic tests in cancer.