Dr Jacqui Frowen is the Clinical Lead Speech Pathologist at Peter Mac. She has worked as a speech pathologist with a special interest in oncology for over 20 years.

Jacqui completed her PhD in 2009, conducting a longitudinal cohort study of patients receiving radiotherapy for head and neck cancer, and identifying risk factors for developing swallowing problems (dysphagia) after treatment. Her post-doctoral work was the first ever study to prospectively investigate swallowing outcomes and associated risk factors many years after radiotherapy for head and neck cancer.

Jacqui currently balances a busy clinical load with ongoing research in swallowing and communication outcomes after cancer treatment, particularly after radiotherapy or surgery for head and neck cancer, and chemoradiotherapy for lung cancer.

Jacqui’s work has been awarded the Peter Mac Lea Medal, and in 2021 she was granted a Peter Mac Discovery Partner Fellowship, supporting her work on dysphagia in head and neck cancer over the next 5 years. Jacqui is passionate about supporting and encouraging other speech pathologists and allied health clinicians to pursue clinical research, and enjoys teaching undergraduate speech pathology students as a regular invited lecturer at the University of Melbourne.

Related links

Speech Pathology Research