How fast does breast cancers grow?
The goal of this project is to develop statistical models to gain new knowledge about the development of breast cancers among women participating in BreastScreen Norway.
About the project
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Project period: 01.08.2020 - 31.12.2030 (Active)
- Coordinating Institution: Norwegian Institute of Public Health
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Project Manager:
- Solveig Sand-Hanssen Hofvind, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
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Project Participants:
- Silje Sagstad, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
- Tor Åge Myklebust, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
- Edoardo Botteri, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
- Marthe Larsen, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
- Laura Bondi, Università Commerciale 'Luigi Bocconi'
- Denitsa Grigorova, Università Commerciale 'Luigi Bocconi'
- Marco Bonnetti, Università Commerciale 'Luigi Bocconi'
Summary
The goal of this project is to develop statistical models to gain new knowledge about the development of breast cancer among women participating in BreastScreen Norway. The study population consists of women who have received an invitation to the screening program and/or have been diagnosed with breast cancer during the period 2006-2021, and we will use data from the Cancer Registry's databases. Among other things, we will model and determine tumor growth rates by examining the period from when the tumor is visible on screening to when it is detected because of symptoms. This represents the phase in which it is possible to diagnose the disease with mammography before the woman has developed symptoms and will provide us with new knowledge about the benefits of mammography screening. We will also focus on survival and overdiagnosis. We expect that this work will contribute to understanding the latent development of breast cancer as well as survival from the disease. This knowledge is crucial for further developing screening and BreastScreen Norway, as well as for studies of overdiagnosis and survival.
Background
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Norway. However, much is still unknown about breast cancer tumours and their ability to grow and develop.
In BreastScreen Norway, asymptomatic women are screened for breast cancer every other year. Data from BreastScreen Norway can be used in statistical models to estimate the time period between when a breast tumor can be detected on screening mammograms and when the tumor is detected due to symptoms. This period is not directly observable. However, it is important to gain knowledge about it to understand more about how breast cancer tumours grow and develop, and how the disease could have developed had the tumours not been detected by screening.
Increased knowledge about the natural development of breast cancers may also increase our understanding of overdiagnosis and overtreatment in breast cancer screening, and contribute as a scientific basis for more a personalized screening program in the future, where e.g., frequency of screening is adapted to women’s individual risk of breast cancer.
This prosject is a collaboration where researchers at the Bocconi University in Italy and the Cancer Registry of Norway at NIPH aim to develop and use advanced statistical models utilizing data from BreastScreen Norway to explore how breast cancer tumors grow and develop.
Aim
The aim of the project is to develop statistical models to gain new knowlegde about how breast cancer tumours develop among women partcipating in BreastScreen Norway. This prosject will increase our understanding of the natural development of breast cancer, and provide increased knowledge about overdiagnosis and survival of breast cancer. This will help improve BreastScreen Norway.
Project implementation
This project will use screening information and information about breast cancer diagnoses from the Cancer Registry’s databases, in accordance with the Cancer Registry Regulation. We will also use information from an epidemiological questionnaire that were used in BreastScreen Norway in the period 2006-2015.
The study population is women aged 50 to 69 who have been screened in BreastScreen Norway and/or have been diagnosed with symptomatic breast cancer from 2006-2021. The project will only use data from women who have not refused permanent storage in the Cancer Registry of Norway of their personal information related to screening examinations with normal results.
The study is registry-based and women will not be contacted about the project. It will not be possible to recognize individuals in published results.
The project has been approved by the Regional Committees for Medical and Health Research Ethics (REK), project number 150166, and has been granted an exemption from the duty of confidentiality.
Personal data in the project will be processed on the legal basis of Article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (processing necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest) and Article 9(2)(j) GDPR (processing necessary for scientific research purposes).
Organization
The Cancer Registry of Norway at the NIPH is the responsible research institution and data controller in Norway. It is responsible for obtaining the necessary approvals in Norway, as well as for extracting, pseudonymising and transferring data to the external project partner. The Cancer Registry of Norway will also contribute to the analysis and interpretation of the data.
Università Commerciale “Luigi Bocconi” in Italy is the responsible research institution and data controller in Italy and is responsible for obtaining the necessary approvals there. Bocconi University is also responsible for managing and analysing the project data.
Status
The necessary agreements between the Cancer Registry of Norway and Università Commerciale “Luigi Bocconi” have been signed, and the required approvals obtained. The dataset was made available to the project team in Italy through the Services for Sensitive Data (TSD) fall 2022. The project group is currently analysing the data and preparing the results for publication.
Contact information
If you have any questions about the study, please contact the project leader at the Cancer Registry of Norway, Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), Solveig Hofvind.
If you have questions regarding data protection in the study, you may contact the Data Protection Officer at the Cancer Registry of Norway, NIPH: personvernombud@fhi.no
You also have the right to lodge a complaint to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet) if you believe that the processing of personal data violates the data protection legislation: Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet.no)