Caroline Dietrich

Caroline Dietrich

Statistician
Visiting address: Maria Aspmans gata 30A, 17164 Solna
Postal address: K2 Medicin, Solna, K2 KEP Ekström Smedby, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • I am a biostatistician with over 15 years of experience working in register-based epidemiological research. I work in the Clinical Cancer Epidemiology Group at the Clinical Epidemiology Division (KEP). Currently, I split my time between applied research in lymphoma and colorectal cancer, and methods development in the field of cancer patient survival research.

Research

  • My main research interests are reproductive epidemiology and cancer patient survival, with a particular focus on survivorship and methods for multistate modelling.

    My current work in lymphoma focuses on follicular lymphoma (FL) and mantle-cell lymphoma (MCL), and is conducted in collaboration with professor Karin Ekström Smedby [1] and professor Ingrid Glimelius [2]. We have recently concluded a large data collection covering all geographical regions in Sweden, and based on this unique data, we are currently investigating timing of progression of disease (POD) and its impact on prognosis, as well as describe patterns and changes in immuno- and chemotherapy over successive treatment lines.

    This research is closely related to my work in multistate models, where we are implementing and illustrating how to incorporate multiple time scales. This can be of interest either as a means of relaxing the Markov assumption, or in the more general case where more than one time scale needs to be taken into account.

    I also work extensively in colorectal cancer research, mainly together with PhD students that I co-supervise. This work centers on CRCBaSe, a database for clinical epidemiological research on colorectal cancer that I have been part of building up. CRCBaSe is based on the Swedish quality of care register for colorectal cancer (SCRCR), and has been linked to several population-based registers in Sweden. More information about this mega linkage can be found here: https://cancercentrum.se/samverkan/cancerdiagnoser/tjocktarm-andtarm-och-anal/tjock--och-andtarm/kvalitetsregister/forskning/forskningsdatabas/. This work is done in collaboration with professor Anna Martling [3] and docent Caroline Nordenvall [4].

    I defended my PhD thesis "Survivorship in Hodgkin lymphoma: Childbearing and treatment-related disease" in 2018. My main supervisor was professor Paul Dickman [5] and my co-supervisors were professor Magnus Björkholm [6], professor Paul Lambert [7], docent Sandra Eloranta [8] and professor Ingrid Glimelius [2].

    The four papers published as part of my PhD were:
    1. Pregnancy and the risk of relapse in patients diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma (J Clin Oncol, 2016) [9]
    2. Contemporarily treated patients with Hodgkin lymphoma have childbearing potential in line with matched comparators (J Clin Oncol, 2018) [10]
    3. Temporal trends in treatment-related incidence of diseases of the circulatory system among Hodgkin lymphoma patients (Int J Cancer, 2019) [11]
    4. A multistate model incorporating estimation of excess hazards and multiple time scales (Stat Med, 2021) [12]

    [1] https://staff.ki.se/people/karin-ekstrom-smedby
    [2] https://katalog.uu.se/empinfo/?id=N5-919
    [3] https://staff.ki.se/people/anna-martling
    [4] https://staff.ki.se/people/caroline-nordenvall
    [5] https://staff.ki.se/people/paul-dickman
    [6] https://staff.ki.se/people/magnus-bjorkholm
    [7] https://pclambert.net/
    [8] https://staff.ki.se/people/sandra-eloranta

    [9] https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/JCO.2015.63.3446
    [10] https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/JCO.2018.78.3514
    [11] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijc.32142
    [12] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sim.8894

Teaching

  • I am currently co-supervisor of the following PhD students:

    Anna Nikkarinen is registered at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Experimental and Clinical Oncology, Uppsala University, since 2019. Anna is an MD and her thesis is on Mantle cell lymphoma with a focus on biology and targeted treatments. Her main supervisor is professor Ingrid Glimelius, and she plans to defend her thesis during 2025.

    Mehrnoosh Shahrivar is an MD and surgeon and initiated her graduate studies in 2020 at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery (KI). The aim of her thesis is to analyse the colorectal cancer genetic profile, in combination with aspirin use, and its impact on prognosis and treatment. Mehrnoosh will be utilizing data from CRCBaSe as well as from the ongoing ALASCCA (Adjuvant Low Dose Aspirin in Colorectal Cancer) [1] trial. Her main supervisor is docent Caroline Nordenvall, and she plans to defend her thesis during 2025.

    Joshua Entrop has a master's degree in public health and is studying childbearing after modern-day intensive immuno-chemotherapy in young Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma survivors. Joshua is registered at the Clinical Epidemiology Division since 2020 with main supervisor docent Sandra Eloranta, and will defend his thesis in January 2025.

    Malin Ljunggren is an MD and is studying patient selection for curative-intended treatments for stage IV colorectal cancer, with special focus on patients with peritoneal metastases (PM). She registered in 2021 at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery (KI) with main supervisor docent Caroline Nordenvall, and plans to defend her thesis during 2025.

    Johanna Borg Bruchfeld investigates sex-related differences in incidence and outcomes among patients with lymphoma from both an epidemiological and a biological perspective. Johanna is an MD and has been registered as a PhD student at the Department of Medicine Solna (KI) since 2019. Her main supervisor is Tove Wästerlid.

    [1] https://ki.se/en/mmk/alascca-study

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Cancer survivorship and cutting-edge biostatistics: Statistical methods development for studies of late effects and prognostic markers
    Swedish Cancer Society
  • Cancer survivorship and cutting-edge biostatistics: Statistical methods development for studies of late effects and prognostic markers
    Åke Wiberg Foundation

Employments

  • Statistician, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 2019-

Degrees and Education

  • Degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, 2018
  • Master of Science, Mathematical Statistics, Department of Mathematics, Stockholm University, 2009

Supervisor

  • Malin Ljunggren, Metastatic colorectal cancer - identifying the patients that receive and benefit from treatment with curative intent, https://ki.se/en/people/malin-ljunggren, 2021
  • Johanna Borg Bruchfeld, Sex-related differences in incidence and outcomes among patients with lymphoma: epidemiological and biological perspectives, https://ki.se/en/people/johanna-borg-bruchfeld, 2021
  • Mehrnoosh Shahrivar, Aspirin use, genetic profile and prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer, https://ki.se/en/people/mehrnoosh-shahrivar, 2020
  • Joshua Entrop, Childbearing after modern-day intensive immunochemotherapy in young Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma survivors, https://ki.se/en/people/joshua-entrop, 2020
  • Anna Nikkarinen, Mantle Cell Lymphoma: Biology and Treatment, https://www.katalog.uu.se/empinfo/?id=N19-106, 2019

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