Val Beral
Encyclopedia
Dame Valerie Beral AC DBE FRS MRCP (born 1946) is an Australia
n-born British
epidemiologist, academic and a preeminent specialist in breast cancer
epidemiology
. She is Professor of Epidemiology, a Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford
and has been the Head of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit
at the University of Oxford
and Cancer Research UK
since 1989.
in 1946. She completed her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree graduating with first class honours from the University of Sydney
in 1969. She then spent six months travelling the "hippie trail
" through Asia
of which she said "That taught me how much I wanted to work. But I still wanted to leave Australia." She then travelled to England
where a friend working at the Hammersmith Hospital
told of her of a job that she applied for and got.
Valerie Beral worked under Charles Fletcher, who recognised that she was suited to epidemiology
and so propelled her towards the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. There she completed a combined course in Epidemiology & Statistics between 1971–72 under the tutorship of Donald Reid. Beral felt very comfortable with the move because she had never felt happy in clinical medicine. She says that "she had never been able to understand how her peers could be so certain about making decisions on incomplete evidence. Epidemiology has offered her not an escape from that uncertainty but the opportunity to tackle it head on." She also became a member of the Royal College of Physicians
.
One of Beral's first interests as a professional epidemiologist was the combined oral contraceptive pill because of work she had previously done in family planning. She felt that epidemiology would give her the tools to begin to answer the questions that people had asked her about safety of the pill. Although Beral has moved on to other projects, this is still one area in which the data have yet to provide support for her initial instinct that the contraceptive pill, like pregnancy, will eventually be shown to protect against breast cancer. Later work included the effects of radiation, breast cancer trials and screening, AIDS
, gene therapy
, Hiroshima
survivors, Chernobyl
, food toxins, and much else. The British Medical Journal
described her tally of jobs, publications, and committees as reading "like a checklist of the epidemiological causes célebres of the past three decades".
Beral completed her training in 1972 and began working for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for a number of years. From there she moved to direct the Cancer Research UK Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford
in 1989. Beral said of being offered the role: "One of the major deterrents when I was offered the ICRF job in 1989 was the thought of being so much in the public eye. It's not my nature."
Beral has served on various international committees for the World Health Organisation and the United States National Academy of Sciences
. She also chairs the Department of Health
's Advisory Committee on Breast Cancer Screening.
(HRT). It is the largest such study in the world with one in four of UK women in the target age group are participating.
In August 2003 Professor Beral’s group published landmark results showing that taking HRT increases a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer with an estimated 20,000 UK women aged 50–64 having possibly developed the disease between 1993 and 2003 due to HRT use. The study also showed that risk increases the longer a woman uses HRT, but drops to the normal level within 5 years after stopping use.
where she has a flat. She also spends time in her house in north London
, shared with her American partner, Paul Fine, who works at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has two sons, Stephen and Richard. She maintains close links with her native Australia but "could not imagine returning to live there". Aside from concerns that Australia would hold little for her partner, Beral has also joked that "The population's too small!" to satisfy her needs as an epidemiologist.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n-born British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
epidemiologist, academic and a preeminent specialist in breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
epidemiology
Epidemiology of cancer
The epidemiology of cancer is the study of the factors affecting cancer, as a way to infer possible trends and causes. The study of cancer epidemiology uses epidemiological methods to find the cause of cancer and to identify and develop improved treatments....
. She is Professor of Epidemiology, a Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford
Green Templeton College, Oxford
Green Templeton College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is the university's newest college having come into existence on 1 October 2008 from the merger of Green College and Templeton College...
and has been the Head of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit
Cancer Epidemiology Unit
The Cancer Epidemiology Unit is a medical research institute within Oxford University in the United Kingdom. It is located in the Richard Doll building on the Old Road Campus, Oxford.- Major projects :...
at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
and Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK is a cancer research and awareness charity in the United Kingdom, formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Its aim is to reduce the number of deaths from cancer. As the world's largest independent cancer...
since 1989.
Education and training
Valerie Beral was born in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1946. She completed her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree graduating with first class honours from the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
in 1969. She then spent six months travelling the "hippie trail
Hippie trail
The hippie trail is a term used to describe the journeys taken by hippies and others in the 1960s and 1970s from Europe overland to and from southern Asia, mainly India, Pakistan and Nepal...
" through Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
of which she said "That taught me how much I wanted to work. But I still wanted to leave Australia." She then travelled to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
where a friend working at the Hammersmith Hospital
Hammersmith Hospital
Hammersmith Hospital is a major teaching hospital in West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and is associated with the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine...
told of her of a job that she applied for and got.
Career
At Hammersmith HospitalHammersmith Hospital
Hammersmith Hospital is a major teaching hospital in West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and is associated with the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine...
Valerie Beral worked under Charles Fletcher, who recognised that she was suited to epidemiology
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
and so propelled her towards the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. There she completed a combined course in Epidemiology & Statistics between 1971–72 under the tutorship of Donald Reid. Beral felt very comfortable with the move because she had never felt happy in clinical medicine. She says that "she had never been able to understand how her peers could be so certain about making decisions on incomplete evidence. Epidemiology has offered her not an escape from that uncertainty but the opportunity to tackle it head on." She also became a member of the Royal College of Physicians
Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...
.
One of Beral's first interests as a professional epidemiologist was the combined oral contraceptive pill because of work she had previously done in family planning. She felt that epidemiology would give her the tools to begin to answer the questions that people had asked her about safety of the pill. Although Beral has moved on to other projects, this is still one area in which the data have yet to provide support for her initial instinct that the contraceptive pill, like pregnancy, will eventually be shown to protect against breast cancer. Later work included the effects of radiation, breast cancer trials and screening, AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
, gene therapy
Gene therapy
Gene therapy is the insertion, alteration, or removal of genes within an individual's cells and biological tissues to treat disease. It is a technique for correcting defective genes that are responsible for disease development...
, Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
survivors, Chernobyl
Chernobyl
Chernobyl or Chornobyl is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, in Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. The city had been the administrative centre of the Chernobyl Raion since 1932....
, food toxins, and much else. The British Medical Journal
British Medical Journal
BMJ is a partially open-access peer-reviewed medical journal. Originally called the British Medical Journal, the title was officially shortened to BMJ in 1988. The journal is published by the BMJ Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Medical Association...
described her tally of jobs, publications, and committees as reading "like a checklist of the epidemiological causes célebres of the past three decades".
Beral completed her training in 1972 and began working for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for a number of years. From there she moved to direct the Cancer Research UK Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
in 1989. Beral said of being offered the role: "One of the major deterrents when I was offered the ICRF job in 1989 was the thought of being so much in the public eye. It's not my nature."
Beral has served on various international committees for the World Health Organisation and the United States National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
. She also chairs the Department of Health
Department of Health (United Kingdom)
The Department of Health is a department of the United Kingdom government with responsibility for government policy for health and social care matters and for the National Health Service in England along with a few elements of the same matters which are not otherwise devolved to the Scottish,...
's Advisory Committee on Breast Cancer Screening.
Million Women Study
This was opened in 1997, and has recruited more than 1.3 million UK women over 50 via the NHS breast screening centres. The study is investigating how a woman’s reproductive history can affect women's health, with a particular focus on the effects of hormone replacement therapyHormone replacement therapy (menopause)
Hormone replacement therapy is a system of medical treatment for surgically menopausal, perimenopausal and to a lesser extent postmenopausal women...
(HRT). It is the largest such study in the world with one in four of UK women in the target age group are participating.
In August 2003 Professor Beral’s group published landmark results showing that taking HRT increases a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer with an estimated 20,000 UK women aged 50–64 having possibly developed the disease between 1993 and 2003 due to HRT use. The study also showed that risk increases the longer a woman uses HRT, but drops to the normal level within 5 years after stopping use.
Honours and awards
- Donald Reid MedalDonald Reid MedalThe Donald Reid Medal is awarded triennially by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in recognition of distinguished contributions to epidemiology.-Institution:...
- in 2006 Beral was recognised by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for her ground-breaking work in cancer epidemiology and women’s health, most notably through the Million Women study, as well as her earlier contributions to the School. - Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 2000.
- Honorary MD, University of Aberdeen, 2005
- Honorary Fellow, Faculty of Public Health Medicine, University of Aberdeen, 2000.
- Fellowship of the Royal SocietyRoyal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
- for scientific contributions to epidemiology. - Beral was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours.
- Beral was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in the Queen's 2010 Birthday Honours List "for eminent service to medicine and women's health through significant advances in cancer research and epidemiology, through seminal contributions to public health policy and as a mentor to young scientists."
Personal life
Beral's work is based in OxfordOxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
where she has a flat. She also spends time in her house in north London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, shared with her American partner, Paul Fine, who works at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has two sons, Stephen and Richard. She maintains close links with her native Australia but "could not imagine returning to live there". Aside from concerns that Australia would hold little for her partner, Beral has also joked that "The population's too small!" to satisfy her needs as an epidemiologist.