Yvonne Joko Walburga Fru
MD,MSc
DPhil Student
Yvonne is a Commonwealth Scholar who joined the Nuffield Department of Population Health in January 2017, under the supervision of Dr. Max Parkin and Dr. Paul McGale. Her research is focused on breast cancer incidence, risk factors and survival in sub-Saharan Africa.
Yvonne studied Medicine at the University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon, where she graduated with highest honours. Upon completion, she worked as a Senior House Officer in the largest oncology unit in Douala, Cameroon, where she saw first-hand the plight of Cameroonian patients, often diagnosed at late stages, with limited access to health care. This prompted her interest in cancer epidemiological research.
She then enrolled into the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she obtained her MSc in Epidemiology in 2014. Her MSc dissertation focused on the “Variation in breast cancer survival by tumour morphology among women diagnosed in England and Wales from 1979-2011”.
Following her MSc, she moved back to her home country where she worked part-time at a referral rural hospital, the Mbingo Baptist Hospital, helping build up a hospital based cancer registry. She then moved on to work with the Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation as Technical Officer for the North West Region -Cameroon, where she helped set up and coordinate a pediatric HIV training centre to improve access to testing, treatment and follow-up for children exposed to HIV. She joined the NDPH from this role.
Recent publications
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Cervical cancer survival in sub-Saharan Africa by age, stage at diagnosis and Human Development Index: A population-based registry study.
Journal article
Sengayi-Muchengeti M. et al, (2020), Int J Cancer, 147, 3037 - 3048
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Trends in the incidence of cancer in Kampala, Uganda 1991-2015.
Journal article
Bukirwa P. et al, (2020), Int J Cancer
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Rising Prostate Cancer Incidence in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Trend Analysis of Data from the African Cancer Registry Network.
Journal article
Seraphin TP. et al, (2020), Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev
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Trends in cervical cancer incidence in sub-Saharan Africa
Journal article
Jedy-Agba E. et al, (2020), British Journal of Cancer
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The evolving epidemic of breast cancer in sub-Saharan Africa. Results from the African Cancer Registry Network.
Journal article
Joko-Fru WY. et al, (2020), Int J Cancer