Sex Disparities Matter in Cancer Development and Therapy

Monday Lunch Livestream

With Dr Sue Haupt

7 June 2021

Hear a Senior Research Fellow from Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre present on the fundamental biological sex differences that are vital to cancer development, patient treatment responses and outcomes.

Evidence shows that the differences in cancer diagnoses between the sexes cannot be entirely explained by lifestyle and hormonal differences. The increased mortality rates of many cancer types are two times higher in males than females, however the current standard of care does not differentiate on patient sex in non-reproductive cancers.

Dr Sue Haupt provides an overview of the risks associated with failing to consider sex in basic cancer research. This awareness has stemmed from her research into core pathways of tumour suppression that differ between the sexes.

Dr Sue Haupt

Dr Sue Haupt is a Senior Research Fellow at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Over the past decade she has made key contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms and regulation of tumour suppression, with a focus on mutant forms of the major Tumour Suppression TP53. Her current research focusses on cancer sex-disparity. Her team at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre discovered a role for TP53 and the X-chromosome in sex-disparity in non-reproductive cancers. Her research spans from basic research to novel therapeutics, utilising bioinformatics approaches, human samples, sophisticated mouse and cell culture experimental models.