Prof. Matti Hakama established a strong tradition in cancer screening and built collaboration with the cancer registry. The Finish Cancer registry remains a key collaborator and the director of the cancer registry, Janne Pitkäniemi is also a part-time professor of cancer epidemiology at TAU. His main interest is in colorectal cancer screening.
Prof. Anssi Auvinen has continued research on effectiveness of prostate cancer screening. He has been the PI of the Finnish component of the European Randomised Study of Prostate Cancer Screening (ERSPC) with 80,000 men, and the co-PI of the ERSPC trial. The ERSPC trial has demonstrated a reduction in prostate cancer mortality in the screening arm relative to the control arm at analyses conducted at 9 to 23 years of follow-up. The major drawback has been the substantial overdiagnosis of clinically insignificant cancer, resulting in a doubtful balance of the benefits and harms, with continued policy debate.
Currently a large, randomized prostate cancer screening known as ProScreen is on-going in collaboration with Tampere University and University of Helsinki. It combines serum PSA with a kallikrein panel and prostate MRI in the screening algorithm. A total of approximately 120,000 men have been randomized in 2018-2025 with a quarter invited to screening. Repeat screening rounds are on-going at intervals ranging from two to six years, based on the initial PSA level.
A large Horizon Europe project UNCAN-Connect is a major effort currently, with TAU leading the work package on prostate cancer. This is also related to the health data science profiling action at TAU
Other cancer sites with large, population-based studies include childhood leukemia and pediatric brain tumors. These studies involve also collaboration with the Childhood Cancer and Leukemia International Consortium as well as Horizon Europe projects MIREYA coordinated by the Italian National Cancer Institute in Milan and ELI-ALL on childhood leukemia coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Cancer risks associated with exposure to ionizing and non-ionising radiation are also among key research interest in the cancer epidemiology group. This involves collaboration with the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority and the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.
Contact
Anssi Auvinen, Principal Investigator
anssi.auvinen@tuni.fi