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Improving screening for breast and prostate cancer with genetic data

The first publication from the European Commission funded Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS), in which the PHG Foundation is a research partner, suggests that using genetic data could improve population screening for breast and prostate cancers.

The aim of COGS is to define individual risk of breast-, ovarian- and prostate cancers, based on lifestyle factors and genetic variants, to improve identification of people at increased risk of these cancers, and prevention of disease. The study is a major multi-centre international project with multiple work packages.

The PHG Foundation is leading a work package to examine the potential for risk stratification of populations and targeted screening based on genetic information, as well as factors relating to implementation such as cost-effectiveness, ethical, legal and social issues. The first publication from this workstream uses modelling to show how adding genetic risk data could allow more targeted and effective population cancer screening.

See press release: Genetic testing could improve cancer screening programmes (click to open PDF file)

The Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS) is a project funded by the European Commission and 7th Framework Programme under grant agreement 223175 (HEALTH-F2-2009-223175). For more information, see www.cogseu.org