Cecilia Radkiewicz

Postdoctoral researcher in cancer epidemiology, Jesper Lagergren's group
Assistant consultant in medical oncology, Capio Sankt Görans Sjukhus
Director of studies, the Research School in Epidemiology for Clinicians 

The primary focus of my research is in clinical cancer epidemiology. I handle big volumes of data by linking multiple Swedish and Nordic population-based health and demographic registers with high national coverage. This enables robust analyses of trends over different time axis. I use state-of-the-art statistical methods to describe and illustrate observational research findings to enable clinical inferences. When quantifying cancer mortality and contrasting survival between patient populations, I apply relative survival and flexible parametric regression models, respectively. I am particularly interested in applying interactive, pedagogic tools to present research findings.

Swedish Anti-Cancer Therapy (SeACT)

I am the primary investigator and driving force behind the SeACT project, an academic initiative aiming to collect Swedish medical record data on cancer drugs from the electronic prescription systems CytoBase, Cytodos, and Mosaiq in order to conduct pharmacoepidemiological studies on cancer treatment in Sweden. The study has been ethically reviewed, with Karolinska Institutet as the main institution.

Background: Around 70, 000 individuals are diagnosed with malignancy in Sweden each year. Incidence is increasing, while a larger proportion of cancer patients are being cured or live longer with cancer. Early detection and treatment, as well as new medications and optimized treatment algorithms, have contributed to this. In routine healthcare, the impact on mortality is however lower, and the risk of side effects higher compared to clinical trials on selected patient groups with short follow-up. Despite serious side effects and high drug costs, it is today not possible to systematically monitor the effectiveness and safety of cancer drugs in Sweden.

Main Objective: To perform phase IV (real-world data) studies on the short- and long-term effects and safety, as well as access to cancer drugs in a Swedish population-based setting.

Study Design and Data Collection: Most cancer drugs are administered as requisition drugs in hospitals. Since around 20 years back, this information is stored in a handful of electronic prescription systems (Cytodos, CytoBase, and Mosaiq) in Sweden. We plan to link treatment data from these prescription systems and the National Prescribed Drug Register to all individuals in the National Cancer Register. Subsequently the cancer cohort will be linked to other population-based health and demographic registers including the National Cause of Death, Patient, Medical Births Registers (the National Board of Health and Welfare) and the and Total Population Register and LISA database (Statistics Sweden), respecively.

The statistical analysis will be carried out as a series of retrospective cohort studies where we (depending on the specific research question) will follow Swedish cancer patients from date of diagnosis, relapse, surgery, or treatment start. The focus is real-world cancer survival and to assess acute and late side effects, between different treatments and patient groups. We will also study how these outcomes are affected by age, sex, comorbidity, and other medications.

Timeline: As of 2024, requests are being submitted to all Swedish healthcare regions/providers to obtain anti-cancer therapy data from their respective electronic prescription system. We hope to have collected treatment data from all regions by mid-2025, and the first sub-study is expected to be submitted for publication in 2026.

Throughout my oncology residency I have been committed to teaching and leading seminars in clinical oncology as a part of the medical education at
Karolinska Institutet. In 2017/2018 I held a teaching position to coordinate and plan the education in palliative care for medical students as a part of the course in clinical oncology. I was responsible for the oncology rotation at the upper gastrointestinal department at Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset, Huddinge 2019-2022. In 2020-2022 I acted as director of studies at the KI/SLL Research School in Epidemiology for Clinicians, generation 19. Since 2024 I am responsible for arranging the Swedish Oncology Association run and recommended course in medical evdience for residents in oncology.