DEVELOP: Using data science to estimate overdiagnosis and mortality reduction in cancer screening programs

The purpose of this project is to improve existing analytical tools used to estimate the major benefits and harms of cancer screening.

Researchers are globally striving to produce reliable estimates on the major benefits and harms of cancer screening and to agree upon which methods that produce reliable estimates. However, the existing analytical tools are increasingly obsolete and require updating. This project will suggest and validate a new method based on existing analytical tools from other research areas. A method that will hopefully enable researchers to produce reliable estimates on the major benefits and harms of cancer screening, both for the entire population and for subgroups.

With the increasing moves to use individualized screening it is extremely important to know if there are subgroups that only have a very small reduction in cancer mortality when participating in screening or subgroups who have a particular high risk of overdiagnosis. The new method may provide these answers.