News

Marissa van Maaren, postdoctoral researcher at IKNL, is the winner of the Enrico Anglesio Prize that was awarded at the online IACR congress 2021. The Enrico Anglesio Prize is awarded every year to a young researcher who has prepared an original work in the domain of epidemiology, cancer registration.

Most patients with cancer receiving immunotherapy, chemotherapy, or both as treatment for solid tumors respond well to vaccination against against Sars-CoV-2, the pandemic coronavirus.

Tuesday November 30th the Comprehensive Cancer Organisation Netherlands organized the online symposium of the Netherlands Cancer Registry. 

Patients with a carcinoma of unknown primary (CUP) in the Netherlands undergo an extensive diagnostic work-up, where the patient’s fitness does not appear to make any difference. IKNL-researcher Laura Meijer and colleagues conclude this in a recent paper on CUP diagnostics and treatment in the Netherlands, using data from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. The patient’s fitness did make a difference in whether a patient received systemic and/or local treatment, although most patients included in the study (58%) did not receive any treatment at all.

In the Dutch session at HIMSS2021 dr. Xander Verbeek, head Research & Development at the Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organization was invited to share his vision on data analytics in oncology. He emphasized the role of the cancer registrations as fuel and engine for data driven rapid health systems, with the overall aim to learn from patients and improve health care. What is his vision for the future of data and AI to improve quality of cancer care?

IKNL joins PIONEER, the European Network of Excellence for Big Data in Prostate Cancer. Within this consortium research will be strengthened with data from the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR). A Data Sharing Agreements was signed for this purpose. IKNL will share results of analyses and aggregated data with Pioneer partners, thus protecting the patients' privacy.

115.000 patients* were diagnosed with cancer in 2020, a decrease of 4.000 diagnoses compared to 2019. This decrease is caused by the postponement of doctor’s visits, the temporary halt of screening programs, and the downscaling of healthcare services last spring due to the COVID-19 crisis. The decrease in cancer diagnoses is the first decline since the establishment of the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR) in 1989. The decline in cancer diagnoses was observed across all cancer sites; however, it was most pronounced for breast, colo, and prostate cancer. These findings derive from data from the NCR and are presented by the Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organisation (IKNL) at the occasion of the annual World Cancer Day on February 4, 2021.

Fewer breast and colorectal cancer diagnoses have been made in the Netherlands due to the COVID-19 crisis this spring. The decline in the number of diagnoses was more abundant in age groups invited to national population screening programmes, as compared to other age groups. More specifically, there was a drop of approximately one-third in breast cancer diagnoses (including its precursor) among 50-74-year-old women and approximately one-fifth in colorectal cancer diagnoses among 55-75-year-old men and women. These are the age groups that are invited to national population screening programmes in the Netherlands. Avinash Dinmohamed, Sabine Siesling, and coauthors described these findings in the Journal of Hematology & Oncology based on data from the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR) that relies on pathological cancer notifications via the Nationwide Histopathology and Cytopathology Data Network and Archive (PALGA).