Research group Karin Ekström Smedby

Clinical Cancer Epidemiology

Our research has a focus on increasing the understanding of etiology and survival of cancer, mainly lymphomas and other hematological malignancies but also other cancer forms such as colorectal cancer. In several studies we use Swedish population-based health care registers (quality registers and national health care databases) to get complete coverage of the patientpopulation. Investigations of survival, risk of recurrence and late treatment complications in cancer are relevant for clinical guidelines and frequency and duration of clinical check-up visits for example.

We also collaborate with our Nordic neighbouring countries in epidemiological register-based studies to validate results and increase robustness of the findings. We also have a close collaboration with the departments of hematology, pathology and clinical genetics at the Karolinska University Hospital in a prospective study to increase knowledge and implementation of precision medicine in lymphomas (the BioLymh study).

Ongoing projects

In a number of large research programs we are investigating various aspects of lymphoma survival and survivorship (e.g. the risk of infertility, cardiovascular disease or second malignancies after completed lymphoma treatment). The research project have the following titles:

• National and nordic studies of adverse treatment outcomes after malignant lymphoma (Funded by the Swedish Cancer Society, PI: Karin Ekström Smedby)
• Childbearing after modern-day intensive chemotherapy in young Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma survivors (Funded by the Swedish Cancer Society, PI: Sandra Eloranta)
• Real-world outcomes in lymphoma and long-term benefit/risk balance of available therapies – A Nordic, multidisciplinary research program (Funded by the Nordic Cancer Union, Co-applicants: Karin Ekström Smedby, Sandra Eloranta, Caroline Weibull)

We are also investigating how new statistical methods in epidemiologic research can be used to maximise the usefulness of register-based data to study clinically relevant questions in cancer epidemiology, primarily with focus on lymphoma.

• Harnessing the power of modern methods: Multistate modelling in cancer epidemiology (Funded by SFOEpi, PI: Caroline Weibull)

Group members