Caroline Dietrich

My research focuses on the development and application of complex statistical methods for survival analysis in cancer survivorship research. I mainly work in haematological cancer, where ongoing studies focus on follicular lymphoma (FL) and mantle-cell lymphoma (MCL) in collaboration  with professor Karin Ekström Smedby [1] and professor Ingrid Glimelius [2].

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 through supervision of PhD students. This work centers on CRCBaSe, a database for clinical epidemiological research on colorectal cancer. 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 Dr 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.8894rther use.

Ongoing PhD student supervision

Co-supervisor of Anna Nikkarinen, who 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 will defend her thesis in 2026.

Co-supervisor of Johanna Borg Bruchfeld, who 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 Dr Tove Wästerlid.

Main supervisor of Stefanie Antonilli, biostatistician and registered since October 2024. Stefanie works on applications of novel statistical methods for cancer survivorship research, with a focus on haematological diseases. She is funded through a grant from Cancerfonden. Co-supervisors of Stefanie are Dr Therese Andersson (KI), professor Ingrid Glimelius (UU), and Dr Matthew Maurer (Mayo Clinic). 

Co-supervisor of Jonatan Hedberg, who is a biostatistician working with approaches for dealing with missing tumour stage at diagnosis, with applications to colorectal cancer. His main supervisor is Dr Elisavet Syriopoulou (KI).

Previous PhD student supervision

Co-supervisor of Dr Joshua Entrop, who defended his thesis in early 2025. Joshuas doctoral project focused on the development and application of modern statistical methods for studies of childbearing among lymphoma survivors. He also developed and implemented methods for parametric estimation of mean number of events in the presence of competing risks. His main supervisor was Dr Sandra Eloranta. 

Co-supervisor of Dr Mehrnoosh Shahrivar between 2020 and 2025. Mehrnoosh is an MD and surgeon, and studied the impact of aspirin use on prognosis and treatment in colorectal cancer. Her main supervisor was Dr Caroline Nordenvall. 

Co-supervisor of Dr Malin Ljunggren (MD), who studied metastatic colorectal cancer from an epidemiological and immunological perspective. Malin registered in 2021 at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery (KI) with main supervisor Dr Caroline Nordenvall, and defended her thesis in late 2025.

Supervision to doctoral degree

• Jonatan Hedberg, Approaches for dealing with missing tumour stage at diagnosis with applications to colorectal cancer and its impact on work-related outcomes, 2024-
• 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-