Cancer Epidemiology
Each year more than 30,000 Danes are diagnosed with cancer. Accordingly, cancer is a part of everyday life to many Danish citizens, and cancer research therefore forms an important part of the research activities at Statens Serum Institut.
Mapping cancer causes
The overarching goals of cancer research conducted at SSI are to establish causes of cancer and to contribute to the continuous improvement of cancer treatment, e.g. by identifying groups of patients, whose prognoses are either very good or bad and who might therefore benefit from different treatment schedules.
Register and biobank research
Epidemiological researchers at SSI take advantage of the unique Danish health registers allowing large studies including the entire Danish population. Thanks to these registers it is in practice possible to follow individuals their entire life.
In recent years the possibility to combine such register data with biological samples from the same individuals have opened entirely new avenues of research allowing unravelling of the effects of genetic susceptibility to disease and the effects of environmental risk factors. Researchers at SSI are already exploiting the combination of research materials, and the establishment of the Danish National Biobank including biological samples from thousands of Danish citizens will likely lead to even more research of this kind.
National and international activites
SSI take part in several national and international research projects, using both registers and questionnaire information. This includes studies of anogenital cancers and of malignant lymphomas. In these collaborations focus has in particular been of the role of certain viruses (human papilloma virus and Epstein-Barr virus), which play a part in the development of certain cancers. Consequently, these cancers may prove preventable, e.g. through vaccinations.
Induced abortion and breast cancer
Register/based studies on the scale of those carried out in Denmark may help refute hypotheses concerning risk factors for cancer. This may save individuals from concern and aid researchers focus on other risk factors.
In one investigation the suscpicion that induced abortion was accompanied by an increased risk of breast cancer was tested by comparision of breast cancer occurrence in all Danish women with and without induced abortion in the period since 1972. The study showed that women who had had induced abortions were not at an increased breast cancer risk.
Register-based research from SSI has also documented that breast cancer risk varies not only by parity but also by age at first childbirth.
Last revised 21 December 2011