Childhood cancer surveillance

Cancer surveillance provides interesting information for and can be used in the development and evaluation of new interventions in two domains: a) the public health domain (population-level) focusing on primary and secondary prevention, and b) the clinical domain (patient-level) focusing on quality of care, prognosis and quality of life.

Our current research programs focus on:

Trends in incidence and survival of several types of childhood cancer

To measure progress and to provide information prior to concentration of childhood care in the Netherlands we have studied already several types of childhood cancer: acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), Hogkin lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin-lymphoma, neuroblastoma, renal tumors and extracranial germ cell tumors.

Epidemiology of high grade brain tumors in children and treatment outcomes

Brain tumors are the most common solid tumors in children and around 50% of these tumors are classified as high-grade. Pediatric high-grade brain tumors are among the most devastating childhood cancers, associated with dismal survival outcomes and high morbidity rates. Underlying reasons for these poor survival outcomes are the aggressive nature of these tumors and the limited treatment options.

Until now, scientific knowledge regarding prognostic factors in high-grade brain tumors in children is limited to tumor biology and basic clinical information. Therefore, it is difficult to predict survival of children with a high-grade brain tumor.

By using population-based epidemiological data and combining this with additional clinical and biological information, we hope to gain insight into the relationship between tumor characteristics, diagnostics, treatment strategies and survival outcomes. To date, no integrative approach has been used that takes all these factors into account. The results of this project will ultimately lead to a better understanding and prediction of survival in children with a high-grade brain tumor.

This project is performed in close collaboration with the research groups of prof. Eelco Hoving, dr. Dannis van Vuurden and prof. Pieter Wesseling.

International comparisons of surveillance measures

Our research group is active in international comparative studies on surveillance measures. Our collaborative network consists of various European Cancer Registries and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IACR), Lyon.

Recently, we have compared incidence, survival and mortality of cancer in children and young adolescents between Belgium and the Netherlands for the period of diagnosis 2004-2015. Results of this collaborative effort with the Belgian Cancer Registry have been published in the International Journal of Cancer (2024). Pubmed PMID: 38478912

We are also participating in the Benchista-study, an international project on benchmarking childhood cancer survival by stage.