Staff Profile
Dr Laura Woods
Senior Lecturer in Public Health
Laura is a Cancer Epidemiologist with a particular interest in social inequalities in cancer outcomes, particularly in relation to early diagnostic activity including screening. Laura completed her undergraduate degree in Human Sciences at Oxford University in 1999 after which she moved to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine to undertake an MSc in Medical Demography (2001) followed by a PhD in Epidemiology ("International differences in breast cancer survival and 'cure' by social deprivation: a comparative study of England and Australia", 2006).
Following her doctorate Laura held a Non-Clinical CRUK Postdoctoral Fellowship at LSHTM during which she held other competitively-won funding enabling her to lead research into differentials in cancer outcomes over a period of 15 years. In March 2022 Laura moved to 缅北禁地's Population Health Sciences Institute to take up a the role of Senior Lecturer in Public Health.
Laura's research to date has focussed on inequalities in cancer survival in the UK, specifically examining patterns and trends by deprivation for all cancers as well as the role of screening and pre-diagnostic covariables in explaining socio-economic and ethnic differences in breast cancer survival. Laura has been Co-PI on an ESRC-funded study examining the specific influence of the socio-economic environment, independently of the a patient's individual deprivation status, upon survival for 6 common cancers in England. She is also developing a greater interest in modes of early cancer detection, and is currently PI on a Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund grant examining the potential of using a machine learning algorithm on primary care records to identify patients at higher risk or developing pancreatic cancer. Since arriving at 缅北禁地 she has won funding to develop a Screening Engagement Index for England (from Cancer Research UK) which will enable a more in-depth analysis of localities which have very low proportions of persons participating in the three national screening programmes, as well as funding from Oracle Cancer Trust & North West Cancer Research to examine patterns and trends in head and neck cancer (HNC), and further funds from Cancer Research UK to examine differentials in adherence to endocrine therapy amongst women with breast cancer. Her other involvements include being Co-I on CANDETECT (www.candetect.org) and the Patient Safety Research Collaboration (Disadvantaged Communities Theme).
Laura has over twenty years' experience teaching Epidemiology, both face-to-face and online, as well as courses on Statistical Methods; Research, Design and Analysis; and Demographic Methods. For a period of over ten years she lectured on an intensive Short Course "Cancer Survival: Principles, Methods and Applications" which included a wide range of participants including those engaged in CPD. In 缅北禁地 Laura co-leads the Module "Social Determinants of Health - Theories and Applications", but also contributes to "Fundamentals of Research" as well as "Public Policy, Health and Health Inequalities". Laura regularly supervises student projects including those completing Master's level awards in Public Health, Pharmacy and Batchelor's awards in Biomedical Science. Laura has supervised three PhD students to completion who have collectively examined issues surrounding different types of survival analyses, net survival patterns and trends, survival according to breast cancer treatment and the use of cancer survival data in policy settings. Laura is always interested to receive contact from prospective research degree candidates.
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Articles
- Ingleby FC, Woods LM, Atherton IM, Baker M, Elliss-Brookes L, Belot A. . BMC Public Health 2022, 22(1), 90.
- Ingleby FC, Woods LM, Atherton IM, Baker M, Elliss-Brookes L, Belot A. . SSM - Population Health 2021, 14, 100815.
- Malhotra A, Rachet B, Bonaventure A, Pereira SP, Woods LM. . PLoS ONE 2021, 16(6), e0251876.
- Woods LM, Rachet B, Morris M, Bhaskaran K, Coleman MP. . BMC Cancer 2021, 21(1), 485.
- Muller P, Woods L, Walters S. . Cancer Epidemiology 2020, 67, 101743.
- Ingleby FC, Belot A, Atherton I, Baker M, Elliss-Brookes L, Woods LM. . BMJ Open 2020, 10(11), e041714.
- Schaffar R, Belot A, Rachet B, Woods L. . BMC Cancer 2019, 19(1), 107.
- Marley C, El Hahi Y, Ferreira G, Woods L, Ramirez Villaescusa A. . Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics 2019, 15(10), 2475-2481.
- Muller P, Walters S, Coleman MP, Woods L. . Cancer Epidemiology 2018, 56, 161-170.
- Spika D, Bannon F, Bonaventure A, Woods LM, Harewood R, Carreira H, Coleman MP, Allemani C. . BMC Cancer 2017, 17(1), 159.
- Schaffar R, Rachet B, Belot A, Woods LM. . European Journal of Cancer 2017, 72, 78-83.
- Morris M, Woods LM, Bhaskaran K, Rachet B. . BMC Cancer 2017, 17(1), 155.
- Morris M, Woods LM, Rachet B. . Oncotarget 2016, 7(31), 49939-49947.
- Gauci D, Allemani C, Woods L. . Cancer Epidemiology 2016, 42, 32-38.
- Woods LM, Morris M, Rachet B. . Annals of Oncology 2016, 27(11), 2025-2031.
- Woods LM, Rachet B, O'Connell D, Lawrence G, Coleman MP. . International Journal of Cancer 2016, 138(10), 2396-2403.
- Woods LM, Rachet B, O'Connell DL, Lawrence G, Coleman MP. . International Journal of Cancer 2016, 138(10), 2404-2414.
- Leung J, Macleod C, McLaughlin D, Woods LM, Henderson R, Watson A, Kyle RG, Hubbard G, Mullen R, Atherton I. . Preventive Medicine Reports 2015, 2, 559-562.
- Rachet B, Maringe C, Woods LM, Ellis L, Spika D, Allemani C. . BMC Public Health 2015, 15(1), 1240.
- Morris M, Woods LM, Rogers N, O'Sullivan E, Kearins O, Rachet B. . British Journal of Cancer 2015, 113(3), 548-555.
- Schaffar R, Rachet B, Belot A, Woods L. . Cancer Epidemiology 2015, 39(3), 465-472.
- Morris M, Woods LM, Rachet B. . Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2015, 69(4), 361-367.
- Li R, Abela L, Moore J, Woods LM, Nur U, Rachet B, Allemani C, Coleman MP. . Cancer Epidemiology 2014, 38(3), 314-320.
- Ellis L, Woods LM, Esteve J, Eloranta S, Coleman MP, Rachet B. . International Journal of Cancer 2014, 135(8), 1774-1782.