Professor John Forbes - Selected Publications

This report represents the culmination of over 15 years of work examining the effects of hormonal therapy and chemotherapy given to women with breast cancer. The data presented in this study clearly indicates the effectiveness of the use of this combined regimen in reducing the recurrence rates of disease.  The outcome of this study is the therapeutic benefit of this type of treatment and the significantly improved outcomes for women diagnosed with this disorder.

Prevention of breast cancer using tamoxifen had been suggestive in the literature for many years. This report ties 5 significant trials of tamoxifen and raloxifene together and reports categorically that there is significant benefit of these two preventative agents.  It also highlights side effects experienced by the women in the trials.

This overview of randomised control trials of polychemotherapy showed that a substantial and highly significant proportional reductions in breast cancer thereby improving recurrence rates and survival rates. Since a large number of women were involved in the study the statistical robustness of the data is very high and consequently polychemotherapy is the recommended approach for women diagnosed with breast cancer but does not state how the patients should be stratified.

Up until 1992 data from the use of hormonal, cytotoxic or immune therapy had not been formally collected and analysed for to determine its overall benefit. This report, which is in two parts, summarizes and describes in detail the value of the three treatments in reducing the risk of disease recurrence and the benefits gained.  The report represented at the time the best available treatment options for women diagnosed with breast cancer and the results of this report have been applied in the clinical setting for some considerable time.

Esteem Factors

• Prof Forbes is Professor of Surgical Oncology at the University of Newcastle, the National Co-coordinator and Director of the Australian New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group (ANZ BCTG) and Director of the Department of Surgical Oncology at the Newcastle Mater Misericordiae Hospital.
• Prof Forbes has been committed to breast cancer research since 1975 and to national and international clinical trials in particular, to develop new treatments for all types of breast cancer and also for prevention of breast cancer.  He has been a visiting Professor in several countries, is on the editorial board of several cancer research journals, has contributed chapters to oncology texts, and has given invited lectures in The United States, Europe and Asia, and presented scientific papers at many research meetings.
• Prof Forbes is a member of many scientific bodies and clinical trials steering committees including: the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG); the Early Breast Cancer Trialists Collaborative Group (EBCTCG); the Scientific Advisory Committee of the ANZ BCTG; the Council of the Breast International Group (BIG), and the Board of the ANZ BCTG.
• The ANZ BCTG is Australia’s national breast cancer clinical trials research group and is dedicated to the cure and prevention of breast cancer.  It has received peer reviewed NHMRC research funding continuously for more than 20 years, and has a highly respected international profile for the quality and contributions of its research. The ANZ BCTG has contributed to over 400 research papers in peer review journals since 1978.
• Web of Science accounts for 3,700 citations, encompassing Prof Forbes’s many peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters.