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Evaluation and development of current cancer screening programmes

We are studying how national cancer screening programmes can be implemented in the best possible way.

This requires a comprehensive assessment of the benefits and harms of screening. New screening programmes and changes to existing screening programmes are evaluated in pilot and modelling studies before their national implementation. Screening programmes are being developed in the JA EUCanScreen project in 2024-2028. We study, among other things, risk-based targeting of screening and the possibilities of technological development in improving screening programmes, such as self-sampling in HPV screening and AI-based reading of mammography images. We are also piloting lung cancer screening combined with smoking cessation support.

Finnish Cancer Registry research related to this focal area:

The study assesses the cost-effectiveness of the national breast cancer screening programme from the perspectives of different screening strategies. Benefit-cost ratios are evaluated compared to the current strategy. The project aims to increase awareness of the costs and benefits associated with breast cancer screening in Finland and to support decision-making on the most profitable screening strategy from a cost-effectiveness perspective.

The purpose of the study is to update the latest data from Finland on how colposcopy referral and detection rates have changed with HPV screening and whether changes can be seen as screening rounds progress. Have the numbers of CIN2+ changes and cervical cancers found altered? In addition, the aim is to assess differences in referral and detection rates in different age groups and other risk groups. Based on these, the effectiveness of current HPV screening in preventing cervical cancer can be examined and possibly also evaluate the current screening algorithm, as well as potentially bring development suggestions to ensure that the algorithm’s sensitivity and specificity are as high as possible while keeping the screening programme cost-effective.

The study aims to evaluate the benefit of the Transpara AI application as an aid in interpreting screening images. The use of AI in screening is compared to traditional double reading by radiologists in terms of cancer detection, number of confirmatory examinations, false positives, and radiologist workload. AI is thus used in risk-based targeting of screening. The project also assesses the cost-effectiveness of risk-based screening. The study is being conducted in collaboration with Tampere University Hospital and Terveystalo.