Professor Webb’s research interests cover all aspects of the epidemiology of ovarian and endometrial cancer from aetiology and prevention, to diagnosis, patterns of care, quality of life and survival. A particular focus is on the role of environmental (non-genetic) factors in the causation of cancer and also the development of sequelae and survival after a diagnosis of cancer. Much of this work is conducted within three national population-based studies, the Australian Ovarian Cancer Study (AOCS, 2002-6), Australian National Endometrial Cancer Study (ANECS, 2007-9) and Ovarian Cancer Prognosis and Lifestyle Study (OPAL, 2012-20), and within two international consortia, the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (OCAC) and Epidemiology of Endometrial Cancer Consortium (E2C2). Funding has recently been obtained for a new project (the OVARIAN Study, 2020-25) that will link data from existing routine health data collections to study aetiology, pathways to diagnosis, managements and outcomes for women with ovarian cancer in Australia.

Professor Webb is also leading a new Queensland trial (PROMISE Study, 2020-2024) to assess the use of electronic tools to collect patient-reported outcome data (e.g. symptoms and side-effects) in routine cancer care.