1756P - Vizcan: A Swedish population-based study to address cancer outcomes using an interactive platform

Background

Cancer is a severe disease, where many of the patients are diagnosed late in their disease course. A detailed understanding of cancer burden at a population level is important to control efforts aimed at reducing the incidence and mortality of cancer. The aim of the present project, which is still in progress, is to build an interactive platform to address and visualize cancer outcomes in Sweden by malignancies, geographical regions, and calendar time for different subgroups such as gender, age groups, level of education and stage at diagnosis.

Methods

In the first step, an interactive visualization platform using the statistical software R and the R Shiny application was developed. In the second step, a registry-based secondary data collection study where subjects will be identified using ICD codes from the Swedish Cancer Registry (SCR) from 2014 and onwards will be conducted. The SCR is held by the National Board of Health and Welfare and is mandatory to report into. Additional information will be retrieved from the Cause of Death Registry, and a social database (LISA) at Statistics Sweden via record-linkage utilizing the Swedish unique personal number. Outcomes will include incidence rates, mortality rates, overall survival and the proportion diagnosed with late-stage disease. Once populated with study data, the interactive platform will be available on a dedicated homepage.

Results

The present study will capture virtually all patients diagnosed with cancer in Sweden from 2014 and onwards. The results from the study will be included in interactive maps, tables and figures so that the user (e.g., health care professionals, patients, and researchers) can explore the outcomes of interest on their own. The data sources together with the interactive tool will increase the understanding of potential socio-economic inequalities and differences in cancer outcomes by geographical regions, gender, and age groups.

Conclusions

The use of population-based information available in the present study in combination with an interactive platform provides a unique opportunity to address a wide range of issues of importance not only for an improved general understanding of cancer, but also for quality assurance and improvement of cancer care.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

The authors.

Funding

This study was undertaken by Epistat AB sponsored by AstraZeneca.

Disclosure

E. Fernholm, A. Juhlin, D. Eek: Financial Interests, Institutional, Affiliate, Employee: AstraZeneca AB. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.