My background covers the range from applied mathematics to public health and education, via epidemiology and medical statistics. I graduated in mathematics from the University of Turin (Italy) in 1996, then completed an MSc in Statistical and Informatic Methods for data analysis in the University of Milan (Italy) in 1998, followed by a specializzazione [PhD equivalent] in Medical Statistics in 2001 and a PhD in Public Health and Education in 2006, both in the University of Pavia (Italy). I was elected a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in July 2012. I became an Honorary Member of the UK Faculty of Public Health in March 2014, and I was awarded the Faculty’s inaugural Global Public Health Award in June 2016. I obtained a European Research Council Consolidator grant in November 2017 to carry out a world-wide study on inequalities in survival from cancers of the breast, cervix and ovary. I was a member of The Lancet Oncology International Advisory Board during 2021-2024. I am co-Chair of the CONCORD-Lancet Global Commission on Cancer.

I was a Research Fellow in Medical Statistics and Epidemiology in Pavia (Italy) from 1998 to 2001. From 2001 to 2011, I worked as a Research Fellow in the Epidemiology Unit, Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milan (Italy), on EUROCARE (European Cancer Registry-based study of survival and care of cancer patients) and related studies, and on the HAEMACARE project (haematological malignancies). I have been working in the Cancer Survival Group at LSHTM since October 2011.