Dr Garth Funston

As a Senior Clinical Research Fellow with CanTest, Garth has recently completed his PhD at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care in Cambridge. He is continuing his research, which focusses on improving the detection of gynaecological cancer in primary care. This work will evaluate the performance of current tests for gynaecological cancer and identify and evaluate the potential of alternative approaches and novel tests for use in primary care.

Garth studied medicine at the Universities of St Andrews and Cambridge, where his interest in cancer research developed. He undertook a research BSc and was awarded several research scholarships and prizes. He spent time in cancer labs in the UK, France and Singapore where his work focused on cancer protein interactions and the development of viruses to target and kill cancers. After graduation, he moved to Manchester where he undertook Academic Foundation Training, worked in a tertiary cancer centre and was later awarded an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in General Practice. He was recently awarded a Wellbeing of Women charity grant to evaluate the diagnostic performance of serum biomarkers for the detection of ovarian cancer in symptomatic primary care patients. This research is currently ongoing.