Professor Prue Francis is Clinical Co-Lead of Breast Medical Oncology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and a Consultant Medical Oncologist at Peter MacCallum and at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, and an Honorary Professorial Fellow of The University of Melbourne. She is a breast cancer clinician researcher committed to improving the outcomes and care for patients with early and advanced breast cancer through clinical trials, associated translational research and education.

Professor Francis graduated from The University of Melbourne and completed medical oncology training in Melbourne and in New York at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre.

She is internationally recognized in the breast cancer field and a member of groups that publish and influence international breast cancer treatment guidelines: the St. Gallen Primary Breast Cancer International Consensus Panel, the Advanced Breast Cancer (ABC) International Consensus Panel, and the Steering Committee for the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) based in Oxford.

Professor Francis has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Breast Cancer Trials cooperative group based in Newcastle (previously known as Australia & New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials group) since 2001, and chaired this committee from 2017-2021. From 2018-2025 she received grant funding from the US Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) to support the Breast Cancer Trials group Biobank to enable translational research.

She is a member of Steering Committees for several international randomized breast cancer clinical trials including BIG 2-98, SOFT, TEXT, EXPERT and PATINA. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG).

Professor Francis is renowned for her development and leadership of the international SOFT and TEXT breast cancer trials that have led to changes in international practice in the management of young women with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer. She was first author of publications in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2015 and 2018 detailing results of this research.

In 2015 she was awarded the Medical Oncology Group of Australia (MOGA) Cancer Achievement award. In 2022 she was awarded Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to medical research in the field of oncology, and to education.