DrJulia Steinberg

Julia co-leads the Australian Cancer Risk Study on genomic risk prediction and risk-tailored screening and early detection for four common cancers (breast, prostate, melanoma, and colorectal). This multidisciplinary collaborative program aims to

• generate new genomic data on over 7,400 participants of the 45 and Up Study, including over 5,000 participants diagnosed with cancer;
• develop and evaluate genomic and integrative risk tools for the Australian population;
• identify public preferences related to genomic risk prediction and risk-tailored cancer screening and early detection;
• determine potential effective and cost-effective genomics-informed risk-tailored screening and early detection strategies.

Julia's Career Development Fellowship builds on this work to further

• investigate the potential of genomics-informed risk prediction to improve outcomes for prostate cancer, with a particular focus on aggressive disease; and
• generate insights on how cancer risk assessement could be implemented successfully across the whole population.

Julia also leads MCD Spotlight, a new collaborative program of work to evaluate the potential of multi-cancer detection (MCD) tests in Australia (funded for 2025-2030). This program brings together researchers from several Australian and international institutions, health professionals, and consumers to

• provide an ongoing landscape and horizon scan of existing and emerging MCD tests;
• map potential pathways for MCD test use and subsequent clinical follow-up investigations in Australia, establishing alignment with needs and preferences of health professionals and consumers;
• assess the benefits, harms, and cost implications of various potential MCD testing scenarios in Australia, developing a dynamic, flexible evaluation platform to rapidly integrate new evidence;
• formulate a policy and practice Roadmap for future MCD test evaluation and (if/when evidence thresholds are met) pathways to evidence-based implementation in Australia.

Beyond these programs, Julia and her team conduct a range of projects that leverage large-scale data to gain insights into cancer patterns and forcast the future burden of cancer. This includes work to uncover cancer journey patterns, estimate the costs of cancer, and project cancer prevalence in Australia. 

Julia is also involved in multiple collaborative programs to help integrate genomics into clinical practice, including clinical trials of genomic testing to assess cancer risk.