Modifiable risk and protective factors of cancer - a population based approach in Switzerland

In the past years, significant contributions to the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease (CVD) were made in Switzerland. To a large extent, this was possible thanks to the Swiss National Cohort (SNC) and additional record linkages with health surveys. Together with CVD, cancer is the most common cause of death in Switzerland. The decline in cancer mortality in the past decades was, however, much smaller than the decrease in CVD mortality, leading to an increase of the relative importance of cancer compared with CVD. Moreover, incidence of many types of cancer is on the rise. Only little is known about the significance of cancer protective factors and their prevention potential on a population level. There are also no tools that physicians could use in order to demonstrate the joint impact of a cancer protective lifestyle on life expectancy. In contrast, CVD risk scores have been well-established for decades. The aim of this project is to develop a cost-effective and elegant approach that uses linked data as well as other available data sources in order to map the modifiable fraction of cancer and to generate a Swiss-specific tool allowing for more efficient and evidence-based cancer prevention recommendations.

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