Rebecca Fitzgerald

Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald serves as Professor of Cancer Prevention, Head of the Department of Oncology, and Director of the Early Cancer Institute at the University of Cambridge. She leads the Cambridge Member Centre of the CRUK Alliance for Cancer Early Detection (ACED) and serves as NIHR Senior Investigator. Her clinical role includes Honorary Consultant in Gastroenterology at Cambridge University Hospitals and Director of Studies in Medicine at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Her research focuses on cancer early detection with emphasis on gastrointestinal malignancies, particularly esophageal adenocarcinoma arising from Barrett's esophagus. She pioneered the Cytosponge technology – a non-endoscopic capsule sponge device for cellular collection and TFF3 biomarker analysis – now being implemented in UK primary care through NHS pilots. Her work integrates liquid biopsy, molecular diagnostics, and AI-driven analysis to develop population-level screening strategies.

Analysis of her 2025 publications reveals dominant themes in real-world implementation of biomarker-based risk stratification (particularly for Barrett's esophagus surveillance), multi-cancer early detection using liquid biopsy, and advanced genomic approaches to predict cancer progression. The research spans technological development, clinical validation, and healthcare system integration.

• Order of the British Empire (OBE)
• Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
• Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci)
• NIHR Senior Investigator
• Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering

She leads multiple major initiatives including the CRUK-funded ACED consortium, the OCCAMS cohort study, and BEST clinical trials program. Her team collaborates with industry partners like Cyted Health (recently securing $44M funding) to translate discoveries into clinical practice. Current work focuses on scaling non-endoscopic screening technologies across the NHS and developing multi-cancer detection platforms.