Yvonne Joko Walburga Fru
MD (University of Yaoundé I), MSc (LSHTM), DPhil (Oxon)
College roles
Postdoctoral Affiliate
Postgraduate Mentor
University roles
Research Associate at the Department of Genomic Medicine, University of Cambridge
Biography
Dr Yvonne Joko Walburga studied Medicine at the University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon, where she graduated as valedictorian. After working as physician in her home country, she moved to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she obtained an MSc in Epidemiology, with a focus on cancer survival. Her doctoral research was carried out at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, under the supervision of Prof. Max Parkin and Dr. Paul McGale. Her DPhil work focused on breast cancer incidence trends and survival disparities in sub-Saharan Africa, using data from the African Cancer Registry Network. During her DPhil, she worked with researchers of the African Cancer Registry Network and the International Agency for Research on Cancer to describe the survival outcomes of the most common cancers in sub-Saharan Africa including cancers of the breast, cervix, colorectum, prostate and childhood cancers.
She currently works as a Research Associate at the Department of Genomic Medicine, University of Cambridge, where she investigates the influence of BRCA1/2 pathogenic variant carrier status and therapy on survival from breast and ovarian cancer, using population-level data, as part of the CanGene-CanVar partnership.
Research Interests
Dr. Joko Walburga is the recipient of a Wellcome Trust Accelerator Award to carry out research on risk factors, tumour biology, and genetic drivers of early vs late onset breast cancer in her home country, Cameroon.
She is passionate about using her research to influence policy and access to quality care for patients with cancers in low- and middle-income settings. She serves as a member of the International Prevention Advisory Group for Cancer Research UK’s International Cancer Prevention (ICP) programme, an initiative committed to reducing the cancer burden in low- and middleincome countries (LMICs). She is also a member of the Ethnicity and Breast Cancer Working Group, Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, a collaborative group of researchers working on ethnic disparities in breast cancer research.