Lectures and seminars SFOepi Seminar Series in Biostatistics: Karri Seppä and Eetu Mäkinen, Finnish Cancer Registry, Helsinki, Finland

Abstract 

Population-based cancer registry data can be used for cancer survival statistics representative of the entire population. We present two ongoing studies on the estimation of population-based cancer survival. In the first study, the associations between lifestyle-related risk factors and early-onset breast cancer survival are assessed by using a matched design where a cohort of patients is matched to patients obtained from the Finnish Cancer Registry. The matched design allows the comparisons between small cohorts with several potential confounders, the effects of which cannot be included in a statistical model without making strict assumptions. In the second study, variation in cancer survival associated with the main variables of cancer coding (primary site, histological type and stage) is estimated over calendar time to assess whether more accurate cancer coding better explains differences in cancer survival. The method utilises hierarchical Bayesian modelling to allow for the estimation of survival for a large number of cancer categories of the international classification system (ICD-O-3).

About the speakers

Eetu Mäkinen and Karri Seppä work at the Finnish Cancer Registry, Institute for Statistical and Epidemiological Cancer Research maintained by the Cancer Society of Finland. Eetu Mäkinen has a MSc in Statistics and his research is focused on comorbidities and cancer risk as a part of the Finnish Center of Excellence research consortium. Dr Karri Seppä is a docent in Cancer Epidemiology and has experience in developing statistical methods for modelling of survival and competing risk data in population-based epidemiological studies.

Registration

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If you have any questions, please contact Marie Jansson at marie.jansson@ki.se