Megan Barnet

Dr Meg Barnet is a medical oncologist specialising in gastrointestinal and lung cancer, with special interests in immuno-oncology and genomic sequencing.

Dr Barnet joined The Kinghorn Cancer Centre at the commencement of her PhD at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in 2017. She has received an Australian Postgraduate Award, Sydney Catalyst PhD scholarship and Australian Genomics Health Alliance PhD award to support this work. She has presented results from her research, which focuses on germline determinants of response to immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer, at national and international conferences including the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) and the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO).

Dr Barnet is the clinical lead for the Exceptional Responders Program, a Garvan/Kinghorn collaboration recruiting patients nationally with unusual or unexpected responses to anti-cancer treatment. The program focus is on genomic sequencing and biobanking of tumour and normal tissue to identify unique changes that may relate to clinical response. The program collaborates with referring clinicians nationally and has formed partnerships with similar programs internationally.

After completing her undergraduate degree in biology and economics at Duke University in North Carolina, Dr Barnet returned to Australia and graduated medicine with Honours from the University of Sydney in 2008. She completed her general medical and oncology training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, before moving to the St Vincent’s precinct to continue her clinical work and develop her research. She is based in the immunology department at Garvan, attends multi-disciplinary meetings in thoracic, colorectal and upper gastrointestinal cancers, is a member of the St Vincent’s Human Research Ethics Committee and a conjoint Associate Lecturer with UNSW Sydney.