David Whiteman
Professor | Senior Scientist | Group Leader
+61 7 3362 0279david.whiteman@qimrberghofer.edu.au
CAREER HISTORY
Professor David Whiteman is a medical epidemiologist with a special interest in the causes, control and prevention of cancer. He received his medical degree from the University of Queensland in 1991, and his PhD in cancer epidemiology in 1997. He was awarded a Nuffield Medical Research Fellowship to undertake post-doctoral training at the University of Oxford in cancer epidemiology. He returned to Brisbane in 2000, and now leads a large program of cancer research comprising national and international studies of melanoma and other cancers.
In addition to his research activities, he is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine, a member of the Academy of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) and currently Chairs the Barrett’s Neoplasia Guidelines Committee for the Cancer Council Australia and the Breast Cancer Risk Factors Working Group for Cancer Australia. In 2006, he was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to work at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
CURRENT APPOINTMENTS
March 2017-current: Senior Scientist, Cancer Control Group
PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS
July 2016-June 2021: Deputy Director, QIMR Berghofer
February 2010-March 2017: Group Leader, Cancer Control Group
January 2009-February 2010: Lab Head, Cancer Control Group
2010-2013: ARC Future Fellow (Senior Level)
2004-2009: NHMRC Senior Research Fellow
2000-2003: NHMRC Peter Doherty Fellow
1998-1999: Nuffield Medical Research Fellow, University Of Oxford, Oxford, UK
1997: Senior Registrar in Public Health Medicine, Queensland Health, Brisbane, Australia
ORCID NUMBER
RESEARCHER ID
CURRENT AREA OF RESEARCH
Professor David Whiteman conducts research into cancers of the skin and gastrointestinal tract, and more recently in cancer control. To that end, he has pursued two parallel but complementary paths, focusing on discovering how environmental and genetic factors interact to cause cancer on the one hand, and then applying this knowledge to the prevention and control of disease on the other.
Professor Whiteman leads the QSkin Study, the world’s largest prospective study of skin cancer with almost 44,000 participants. This cohort is measuring absolute and relative risks for basal and squamous cell carcinomas (BCC and SCC) and melanoma associated with phenotypic, lifestyle, clinical, and environmental factors, from which to build novel, valid decision tools for doctors and patients. The cohort is also measuring the impacts of protective behaviours and estimating the burden (mortality, costs, etc.) of skin cancer in Australia. In 2013, he was awarded a $3.4 million NHMRC project grant to collect DNA samples from 19,000 QSkin participants and perform a genome-wide association study – one of the largest studies of its type ever conducted in Australia.
He also studies oesophageal cancer, and its premalignant precursor, Barrett’s oesophagus. These investigations continue through rewarding collaborations with national (PROBE-NET consortium) and international (BEACON consortium) investigators.
More recently, Professor Whiteman has taken a broader interest in cancer control, using the data generated from epidemiological studies to develop estimates of cancer burden with a view to informing health policy. This work was commissioned originally by Cancer Council Australia, and has now expanded into a new program of work.
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Professor Whiteman’s research career has been largely devoted to the field of cancer control, particularly for cancers of the skin and recently, the oesophagus.
Melanoma and skin cancer
- Multiple causal pathways to melanoma: During doctoral studies supervised by Adele Green, he observed that melanomas may be grouped according to the expression of the p53 tumour suppressor gene, and that p53 expression was associated with patterns of sun exposure. From these observations, he proposed the ‘divergent pathway hypothesis’ which proposed that sunlight’s role in causing melanoma differs depending upon host phenotype and the anatomic site of the target cell.
- Identified risk factors for childhood melanoma: Professor Whiteman conducted the world’s first analytical studies of childhood melanoma, firstly documenting the incidence of these cancers before identifying causal factors.
- Defined the ‘critical period’ for sun exposure: By cataloguing melanoma incidence rates among migrants around the world, Professor Whiteman showed conclusively that exposure to high levels of sunlight in childhood is strongly associated with cutaneous melanoma.
- Melanocyte responses to sunlight: Trials were conducted with Elke Hacker, Nick Hayward and Michael Kimlin (QUT), exposing human volunteers to solar simulated UV radiation and demonstrating that melanocytes would proliferate in response to sunlight; and this is blocked by sunscreen. It was also identified that the MC1R pigmentation gene played a key role in controlling the rate at which melanocytes proliferate.
- Professor Whiteman recently published a detailed analysis of the melanoma epidemics that have occurred in European populations around the world, and showed that melanoma rates in Australia peaked in 2005 and are now declining.
- Using data from the QSkin study, risk prediction models for keratinocyte cancers (BCC and SCC), and for melanoma have been developed.
- It was shown that smoking doubles the risk of developing SCC of the skin, even after controlling for other causal factors, but does not increase the risk of BCC or melanoma.
Barrett’s oesophagus and oesophageal cancer
- Population-based epidemiological studies of Barrett’s oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma demonstrated convincingly that obesity is a key risk factor for these conditions.
- It was shown that smoking has very different effects on oesophageal adenocarcinoma and oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
- Collective analyses confirmed that aspirin and NSAIDs reduce the risk of oesophageal adenocarcinoma.Infection with Helicobacter pylori also reduces the risk of this cancer.
Preventable fractions of cancer
- In 2015, Professor Whiteman published a landmark series of 14 papers that estimated the burden of cancers in Australia that are due to modifiable factors
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
- Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences
- Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine
- National Association of NHMRC Research Fellows
- Australasian Epidemiological Association
AWARDS RECOGNITION
2016:
- Honorary Fellow, Skin Cancer College Australasia
2015:
- Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences
2013:
- NHMRC Principal Research Fellow
2011:
- Bancroft Medal – service to QIMR Berghofer
2009:
- ARC Future Fellow (senior level)
2008:
- NHMRC ‘10 of the Best’ for Program Grant #199600 (with Adele Green and Penny Webb)
2006:
- American Society of Clinical Oncology Major Advance in Cancer Research
- Fulbright Senior Scholarship
2004:
- QIMR Annual Conference: Best Scientific Presentation
- Clive Berghofer Prize: Best Scientific Paper published by QIMR Faculty
2001:
- Australia Post Medical Research Fellowship: Royal Aust College of Physicians
- Young Tall Poppy Award: Aust. Institute of Political Science
1997:
- Nuffield Medical Research Fellowship: University of Oxford
1995:
- Australian Epidemiological Association Student Presentation Prize
1994:
- The John Earnshaw Scholarship (declined): Queensland Cancer Fund
1992:
- Trevor Taylor Research Prize: Royal Darwin Hospital
1987:
- Mayne Undergraduate Research Studentship: The University of Queensland
1986:
- William Nathaniel Robertson Scholarship: The University of Queensland
In addition to his research activities, Professor Whiteman is a member of the Academy of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC), Chair of the Barrett’s Neoplasia Guidelines Committee for the Cancer Council Australia and Chair of the Breast Cancer Risk Factors Expert Reference Group for Cancer Australia. He serves on advisory committees for Cancer Council Australia and Cancer Council NSW. He previously chaired the Fellowships committee of the International Agency for Research on Cancer and served as a Member of Council of NHMRC, the NHMRC National Asbestos Research Working Group, NHMRC Privacy Working Group, NHMRC Strategic Research Development Committee and Cure Cancer Australia Foundation.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
1998: Fellow, Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine, Royal Australasian College of Physicians
1997: Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
1991: Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery (Hons), The University of Queensland
1988: Bachelor of Medical Science, The University of Queensland