Associate Professor Beale obtained his medical degree in 1986 from UNSW. He completed his FRACP in 1994 and his PhD from London University in 2000. He worked as a Clinical Research Fellow from 1995 to 1998 at the Royal Marsden Hospital and has since worked as a staff specialist in Sydney Local Health District at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Concord Hospital and Chris O'Brien Lifehouse. His current positions are Director of Cancer Services, Sydney Local Health District, Director of Palliative Care, Sydney Local Health District, Head of Department (Medical Oncology) at Concord Hospital, Senior Staff Specialist at RPA, Senior Staff Specialist at Chris O'Brien Lifehouse and Associate Professor at the University of Sydney. His PhD research was concerned with platinum drug resistance in ovarian cancer cell lines, translational research in ovarian cancer and a phase 1 clinical trial of a new platinum compound. He was also involved with the phase I clinical trial unit at Royal Marsden Hospital. In clinical practice A/Prof Beale has a special interest in ovarian, breast, colorectal and upper gastrointestinal cancers. He has been involved in phase I, II and III clinical trials for all of these cancers and the PI in several breast and ovarian cancer trials. He has published more than 100 peer reviewed papers. He has been on the RAC and audit committee of the ANZGOG trials group and a member of the AGITG and ANZBCTG trials groups. He chairs the Clinical Trial Unit at Concord Hospital Currently his research interests are in drug resistance and designing new platinum compounds, pharmacological interactions of chemotherapy agents with herbal compounds and the role of inflammation in cancer drug metabolism, along with the toxicity of chemotherapy and hormonal agents in patients with breast cancer