Principal advisor: Professor Marina Reeves
Co-supervisor team: Dr Melinda Protani, Dr Jodi Sanus, and Dr Louise Marquart-Wilson
Division: Health Promotion & Equity
Larissa works at the School of Public Health at The University of Queensland, Herston campus. Larissa’s thesis focuses specifically on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), the most aggressive type of breast cancer, with limited treatment options and the poorest prognosis. Her systematic review and meta-analysis (published in 2024) showed for the first time that excess body weight is not only associated with poor prognosis but that this differs by continent/ethnicity. This is crucial for tailoring recommendations and targeting interventions for women with TNBC.
She also examined incidence and survival outcomes across breast cancer subtypes in real-world data from women diagnosed in Queensland between 2017-2019 and is working on TNBC data around receipt of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which is the primary recommended therapy for TNBC even for small tumours, and survival outcomes.
Larissa is a Nutritionist, having obtained a master's in health science in 2018 in Brazil (where she is from). She is passionate about breast cancer research and aims to continue her research career in the field.