Maria Feychting

Maria Feychting

Professor
Telephone: +46852487465
Visiting address: Nobels väg 13, 17177 Stockholm
Postal address: C6 Institutet för miljömedicin, C6 Epidemiologi Feychting, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • I am Professor of Epidemiology at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, and Head of the Unit of Epidemiology. The research at our unit aims at increasing the understanding of the influence of environmental and lifestyle factors, as well as other risk factors, on the risk of disease, particularly cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and to further the understanding of the aging population health and determinants of longevity.

Research

  • My main research area is within cancer epidemiology, with a primary focus on brain tumors and childhood cancers, as well as genetic syndromes associated with an increased cancer risk. We study risk factors for cancer development and factors affecting survival after a cancer diagnosis. We study chemical and physical exposures in the workplace and disease risk. We characterize socioeconomic differences in risk and survival in childhood cancer and brain tumors in adults. In Nordic collaborations, we have research programs focused on socioeconomic differences in childhood cancer risk (SOFIA) and disease burden and socioeconomic consequences in adult life after childhood cancer (SALiCCS). More recently, we use the same approach to study genetic syndromes such as neurofibromatosis and tuberous sklerosis. In many of our studies we utilize the unique population and health data registers in Sweden and the Nordic countries, but we also use surveys to collect data for research.

    I have conducted research on potential health effects of non-ionizing radiation since the late 1980s, and I am currently the PI for the Swedish part of the COSMOS study – an international prospective cohort study of mobile phone users. I have led the Swedish component of several international case-control studies, such as the Interphone study of adult brain tumors, and the Cefalo study of childhood brain tumors.

    During the past decade, my research has been funded by the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation, Nordforsk, and the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority.

    I am extensively involved in health risk assessment work, which is part of the mission of the Institute of Environmental Medicine. I have served as scientific expert in several national and international public advisory and research steering groups concerning the potential health effects of exposure to non-ionizing radiation, currently for the World Health Organization (WHO). I was vice chairman (2012-2020) of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), an independent body recommending science-based guidelines for non-ionizing radiation protection, which are used by a majority of countries that regulate exposure levels to protect population health, including Sweden.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2024 - 31 December 2026
    The association between weight, and cardiovascular disease and mortality is well established, however, the causal effect of weight-loss in midlife on these outcomes is less clear. Bariatric surgery results in substantial weight-loss and is an ideal candidate to study the causal effects of weight-loss. We propose a project that willcausal inference and machine learning methods to answer two important questions: 2) Is bariatric surgery effective for reducing cardiovascular disease and mortality, and if so, for who? 3) Which type of bariatric surgery (gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy) is most effective, and for who?We will use data from various Swedish registers to identify individuals with obesity who are eligible for bariatric surgery. We will then compare cardiovascular and mortality outcomes among those undergoing different types of bariatric surgery with those receiving non-surgical obesity management using causal inference methods. We will use causal forests and expert knowledge to estimate indiviual treatment effects, and identify the groups of patients who benefit the most from these surgeries.This 3-year project will be undertaken by the CAUSALab, at the Unit of Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet. The team of co-applicants, have extensive experience in using observational data to obtain causal inferences, particularly in the field of cardiovascular disease. A postdoctoral researcher will be hired to work full-time on this project.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2023 - 31 December 2025
    This proposal aims to utilize the pandemic as a “natural experiment”, by studying childhood cancer incidence before, during and after the pandemic in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. The pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to test the hypothesis of an infectious disease etiology for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, enhanced by the different pandemic strategies in the Nordic countries. We also aim to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on childhood cancer patients, both regarding susceptibility to COVID-19 in long-term childhood cancer survivors, and, for those diagnosed with childhood cancer during the pandemic, whether the path through primary care to cancer diagnosis and short-term survival has changed compared to the period prior to the pandemic. An important aspect of this project is that we will study if the social inequalities in number of contacts with healthcare and childhood cancer survival have worsened during the pandemic.We will utilize the unique infrastructure for register-based research in the Nordic countries: for incidence trends and health care pattern around the pandemic, new data will be collected from national health data registers and regional primary care. For COVID-19 risk in long-term survivors the unique Nordic cohort of childhood cancer survivors, SALiCCS, will be utilized, including 20 000 survivors, their siblings, and population controls.The project will provide new knowledge on childhood cancer etiology and childhood cancer late effects.
  • Barncancerfonden
    1 January 2022 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2022 - 31 December 2025
    Randomized trials do not estimate treatment effects in individuals that were eligible but did not enroll in the trial. However, guidelines established as a result of the trials apply to these populations in clinical practice. On average, around 40% of eligible individuals do not enroll in trials. A treatment that shows no benefit in trial participants may be effective in a subpopulation not likely to enroll, such as older individuals. Differences in effectiveness must be quantified to guide policy decisions. Extending randomized trial results to the treatment eligible population is often handled using real-world data alone, which are prone to bias.This project will propose a novel framework that uses transportability and benchmarking methods to simultaneously utilize data from the TASTE and VALIDATE randomized trials and real-world data from the SWEDEHEART registry to robustly fill the knowledge gaps left by the trials. Specifically, we will estimate the effect of thrombus aspiration and two anticoagulant medications after myocardial infarction in the whole trial-eligible population of Sweden
    test the reliability of studies that use real-world data alone to estimate treatment effects
    and create tutorials, teaching materials, and open-source code to facilitate the uptake of these methodologies. Our research will improve public health decisions in Sweden and serve as a model in the extension of findings from randomized trials to the population eligible for treatment.
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2022 - 31 December 2024
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2021 - 31 December 2023
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2020 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2018 - 31 December 2021
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2018 - 31 December 2020
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2018 - 31 December 2020
  • Brain Tumor, Neurofibromatosis and Other Genetic Cancer Symptoms - A Deepening of the Knowledge of Risk Factors for Nervous System Tumors
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2017
    Nervous system tumors affect over 1000 people annually, and the prognosis is often poor. Known risk factors are several genetic cancers and ionizing radiation. Factors associated with pregnancy and childbirth appear to be important for the onset of brain tumor in children, as well as childhood cancer in general. We also saw similar relationships for tumors in the nervous system in adults. About 50% of the cancer syndrome, which is characterized by a high incidence of nerve system tumors, has no known family history. de novo case. There are studies of single cases but very few epidemiological studies of these, and indications that the father's age is important. The purpose of the research program is to further deepen the knowledge of the causes of tumors in the nervous system. We want to investigate whether the risk increases observed in relation to factors during pregnancy and childbirth can be explained by cancer syndrome. To further deepen our knowledge, we also want to identify factors that affect the risk of suffering from any of these cancer syndromes among people who have no family history. We also intend to continue to follow the incidence trend for brain tumors, and to make descriptive analyzes of the prevalence of the genetic cancer syndromes in Sweden, which has never been done at present. We hope to be able to provide in-depth knowledge of the causes of tumors in the nervous system, and of de novo genetic syndromes that are associated with increased incidence of such tumors. There is as yet no systematic description of the incidence of these cancer syndromes in Sweden, and recently a Finnish study reported a higher incidence than previously known. In Sweden, we have a unique opportunity to carry out this type of study and can contribute important information in the area, using our unique health data registers.
  • Brain Tumor, Neurofibromatosis and Other Genetic Cancer Symptoms - A Deepening of the Knowledge of Risk Factors for Nervous System Tumors
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2016
    Nervous system tumors affect over 1000 people annually, and the prognosis is often poor. Known risk factors are several genetic cancers and ionizing radiation. Factors associated with pregnancy and childbirth appear to be important for the onset of brain tumor in children, as well as childhood cancer in general. We also saw similar relationships for tumors in the nervous system in adults. About 50% of the cancer syndrome, which is characterized by a high incidence of nerve system tumors, has no known family history. de novo case. There are studies of single cases but very few epidemiological studies of these, and indications that the father's age is important. The purpose of the research program is to further deepen the knowledge of the causes of tumors in the nervous system. We want to investigate whether the risk increases observed in relation to factors during pregnancy and childbirth can be explained by cancer syndrome. To further deepen our knowledge, we also want to identify factors that affect the risk of suffering from any of these cancer syndromes among people who have no family history. We also intend to continue to follow the incidence trend for brain tumors, and to make descriptive analyzes of the prevalence of the genetic cancer syndromes in Sweden, which has never been done at present. We hope to be able to provide in-depth knowledge of the causes of tumors in the nervous system, and of de novo genetic syndromes that are associated with increased incidence of such tumors. There is as yet no systematic description of the incidence of these cancer syndromes in Sweden, and recently a Finnish study reported a higher incidence than previously known. In Sweden, we have a unique opportunity to carry out this type of study and can contribute important information in the area, using our unique health data registers.
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2016 - 31 December 2018
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 December 2015 - 30 September 2016
  • Brain Tumor, Neurofibromatosis and Other Genetic Cancer Symptoms - A Deepening of the Knowledge of Risk Factors for Nervous System Tumors
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2015
    Nervous system tumors affect over 1000 people annually, and the prognosis is often poor. Known risk factors are several genetic cancers and ionizing radiation. Factors associated with pregnancy and childbirth appear to be important for the onset of brain tumor in children, as well as childhood cancer in general. We also saw similar relationships for tumors in the nervous system in adults. About 50% of the cancer syndrome, which is characterized by a high incidence of nerve system tumors, has no known family history. de novo case. There are studies of single cases but very few epidemiological studies of these, and indications that the father's age is important. The purpose of the research program is to further deepen the knowledge of the causes of tumors in the nervous system. We want to investigate whether the risk increases observed in relation to factors during pregnancy and childbirth can be explained by cancer syndrome. To further deepen our knowledge, we also want to identify factors that affect the risk of suffering from any of these cancer syndromes among people who have no family history. We also intend to continue to follow the incidence trend for brain tumors, and to make descriptive analyzes of the prevalence of the genetic cancer syndromes in Sweden, which has never been done at present. We hope to be able to provide in-depth knowledge of the causes of tumors in the nervous system, and of de novo genetic syndromes that are associated with increased incidence of such tumors. There is as yet no systematic description of the incidence of these cancer syndromes in Sweden, and recently a Finnish study reported a higher incidence than previously known. In Sweden, we have a unique opportunity to carry out this type of study and can contribute important information in the area, using our unique health data registers.
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2015 - 31 December 2017
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2014 - 31 December 2016
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2014 - 31 December 2018
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2011 - 31 December 2013
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2011 - 31 December 2013
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Employments

  • Professor, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 2005-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2001

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