from Oxford in 2004 with a thesis entitled Use of hormone replacement therapy as a potential co-factor in the neoplastic progression of HPV-related cervical disease,[1] Canfell returned to Australia to work for the Cancer Council in Sydney where she continued to work on cervical cancer in particular[2][3][4] and all its ramifications, as well as the epidemiology of breast[5][6] and other cancers.
[26] From approximately 2020, she has been the director of The Daffodil Centre at the University of Sydney (a joint venture with the Cancer Council).
[20] She is a co-leader of the World Health Organization (WHO) Cervical Cancer Elimination Modelling Consortium.
[20] In 2015 she won the National Health and Medical Research Council National Award for Research Excellence and was also nominated that year as a Woman of Influence by Westpac and the Australian Financial Review.
[30][31] Canfell was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in the 2024 King's Birthday Honours for "eminent service to medicine as an epidemiologist, particularly through cancer research, to tertiary education, and as a mentor and leader".