Kostas Tsilidis

Kostas TsilidisKostas is a Senior Lecturer in Cancer Epidemiology at Imperial College London, and the co-Principal Investigator of our Global Cancer Update Programme.

How did you get into cancer research?

I was interested in cancer research from the early years of my bachelor’s degree in nursing without any particular reason. When I continued postgraduate studies at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, this interest exploded just by being around worldwide experts in the field like Prof Elizabeth Platz, who ended up being my PhD supervisor.

Do you wear a lab coat? And if no, why not?

No, I don’t, because I spend most of my time in front of a computer analysing and interpreting population data.

What part of your research career are you most proud of?

During the last year, I have initiated a new prospective epidemiological study in Greece, the Epirus Health Study, which is designed to investigate the aetiology [the study of the causes of a disease] of complex multifactorial diseases in Greece and I perceive this study as my ‘scientific child’.

When you were a child what did you want to be when you grew up?

Many different things at different ages! I was driven to the medical profession later in adolescence.

Did you ever set fire/make anything explode in science lessons at school?

I don’t think I did …

Thank you from Kostas

Kostas TsilidisThrough your donations, World Cancer Research Fund is funding my research into nutrient-wide association studies, looking at lung, breast, colorectal and prostate cancers.

You can read more about it on the World Cancer Research Fund International website:

> Comprehensive assessment, validation and causal identification of dietary exposures and cancer risk