AG Oettlé Memorial Award 2025 to Dr Maureen Joffe
Dr Maureen Joffe
Dr Maureen Joffe has been selected to receive the coveted AG Oettlé Memorial medal from CANSA for her outstanding contributions to cancer research.
CANSA honours this distinguished scientist, in recognition of her remarkable contribution to cancer research, health systems strengthening, and the advancement of cancer control in South Africa and across the African continent.
Dr Maureen Joffe is Director of the Batho Pele Breast Clinic Research and Noncommunicable Diseases Research Divisions of the Wits Health Consortium, University of the Witwatersrand. She holds a PhD in Medical Biochemistry and an MDP in Management Development, reflecting her rare combination of scientific, clinical, and management expertise.
Dr Joffe began her career with a PhD on neuromuscular diseases, publishing several influential papers before lecturing in Biochemistry and Medical Biochemistry at Wits. After a period in the health industry, where she led a South African ophthalmic company affiliated with the American firm STAAR Surgical, she returned to academia in 2000 to head the Clinical Research Division of the Wits Health Consortium. In this role, she pioneered electronic ethics and clinical trial databases for the South African Department of Health. She established two major clinical research centres dedicated to noncommunicable diseases and oncology at the Chris Hani Baragwanath and Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospitals.
Together with Professors Paul Ruff and Herbert Cubasch, Dr. Joffe co-founded the Oncology Epidemiology Research Group, which has become a leading African hub for cancer research. She is Co-Principal Investigator of the South African Breast Cancer and HIV Outcomes (SABCHO) Study, the country’s largest prospective breast cancer cohort, which has enrolled over 3,000 women. Findings from this work have shaped national cancer staging, treatment, and survivorship policies.
Dr Joffe has secured over 20 national and international research grants, including those from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Wellcome Trust, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. She collaborates extensively with scientists from Harvard, Columbia, Yale, King’s College London, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Her 70+ peer-reviewed publications, cited more than 1 300 times, have advanced understanding of HIV-associated cancers, multimorbidity, and cancer outcomes in low- and middle-income settings.
A passionate mentor, she has co-supervised several PhD and Master’s students, guided postdoctoral researchers, and serves as an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) mentor for early-career clinician-scientists.
In recognition of her leadership, mentorship, and lifelong dedication to equitable cancer care and research excellence, CANSA proudly presents the 2025 AG Oettle Memorial Award to Dr Maureen Joffe – a visionary scientist whose work continues to shape the future of cancer control in South Africa and beyond.
