Cancer survival inequalities documented by EUROCARE need to be explained by Population Based Cancer Registry (CR) High Resolution (HR) studies which capture innovation in cancer diagnosis and treatment, and investigate whether co-morbidities influence outcome and treatments.
The main aim of the project was to study the influence of patterns of care and co-morbidities on clinical outcomes in breast (BC) and colorectal cancer (CC) patients diagnosed in 2011-14 in a number of EU areas.
Aims: (i) the influence of co-morbidity on treatment choice, adhesion to clinical guidelines, relapse and disease-free survival and their association with BC and CC prognostic characteristics; (ii) the CRs possibility to access biobanks in their areas, piloted through the validation of a plasma derived microRNA signature. Each CR recruited a sample of 500 breast and/or colorectal cancer cases, and abstracted information on stage, diagnostic exams, morphology and bio-molecular subtype, treatment, co-morbidity and follow-up, from clinical records (as with HR study protocol). Data was centralized and multivariable survival analyses were carried out. In addition, a plasma-based microRNA signature predictive of distant metastatisation in early stage BC were validated using biobanks in partners areas. The project was coordinated by the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori and organised in 4 WPs. The research consortium includes CRs with past experience in HR studies, 1 basic research and 2 clinical teams, epidemiologists, and public health experts.