Dr Cameron Snell is an Anatomical Pathologist with Mater Pathology. He is involved in teaching and research with Mater Research and as an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Queensland. He leads the Cancer Pathology Research Group, which collaborates widely with cancer research groups in breast, melanoma, lung and gynaecological cancers.

Cameron’s research interests are in developing novel clinical tests that can predict responses to targeted therapies in cancer. He has expertise in target cell detection, observation of drug and cell interactions and cohort based treatment trials. He is currently involved in building large clinical cohorts for retrospective cohort studies in melanoma, breast and gynaecological cancers.
Cameron’s research aims to match the most effective cancer therapies to patients. This has the potential to increase the number of patients achieving a cure in early stage cancers, and increasing survival in those with later stage cancers.

Cameron is a Fellow with the The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia, the American Society of Clinical Oncologists (ASCO) the Australasian Lung Cancer Trials Group and a member of the Mater Research Committee.

Cameron’s undergraduate medical training was at the University of Melbourne graduating in 2006. He commenced training in anatomical pathology in 2008 at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and undertook a biomedical DPhil at the University of Oxford (2013). He was awarded fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2015.

“As a pathologist, my role in the cancer multidisciplinary team is to extract the maximum information from a biopsy, or tumour resection specimen, to enable other members of the team - oncologists, radiation oncologists and surgeons - to make the most effective management decisions to treat a person with cancer. This might be a particular choice of drug or operation. Whilst there have been great advances recently, there is still great uncertainty about the effectiveness of particular treatments on a case-by-case level. I feel research into developing new prognostic and predictive tests is just an extension of my current role. Work in this area has the potential to dramatically improve patient care in a short period of time.”