New cancer treatment and survival

The number of cancer survivors is increasing and this is partly due to improved cancer treatment. In this study, we investigate whether new, expensive cancer treatments reduce the need for other palliative treatments and how much new cancer drugs increase overall survival in the population.
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Background

The number of cancer cases is increasing, as does cancer survival. This is largely due to early diagnosis and improved cancer treatment. However, there are a number of unknown factors associated with cancer treatment; What characterizes the patient groups in the population that first access the new expensive cancer treatments and to what extent are the national guidelines followed? How effective are the drugs in the population and how much they increase survival in the real world? Do new cancer treatments reduce the need for other palliative treatments? These are the issues we will study by linking population-based registers in Norway.

Design and data material

In this study, we will study six of the largest cancers types. The data consists of all first-time cancer diagnoses between 2004-2018 for:

Prostate cancer
Breast cancer
Lung cancer
Colorectal cancer
Melanoma
Lymphoma


The data consists of a link between a number of registers, including the Norwegian Patient Register, the NorSe Register, Statistics Norway, HELFO and the Cancer Registry.

Sub-projects 

Immunotherapy and targeted therapy of advanced non-small cell lung carcinoma: Treatment benefits and cost in an unselected real-life population

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) diagnosed in late stages carries high mortality. Targeted therapy and immunotherapy may increase survival and symptom relief although high drug prices limit their use. This study aims to describe the charachteristics for recipients of these new treatments, and estiate their survival, and cost of patient care.

 

Health outcomes and prognostic factors after introduction of new anti-cancer drugs in patients with metastatic prostate cancer: A population-based study