Colorectal cancer screening in Flanders

In a previous doctoral project on colorectal cancer (CRC) screening (Wessel van de Veerdonk, 'Colorectal cancer screening in Flanders: Towards an optimal performance'), a number of bottlenecks of the current Colorectal Cancer Screening were investigated, including (the lack of) personalized screening, interval cancers and inaccessibility for certain subgroups. The present doctorate will continue to work on mapping out the inaccessibility, using new available data. Recently, an exchange of data was realized between https:// Bevolkingsonderzoek.incijfers.be/jive and https://provincies.incijfers.be so that the Center for Cancer Detection (CCD) now has new data for a number of important parameters that provide a detailed insight into a number of determinants of participation in both the organized screening program and the so-called 'opportunistic screening'. It then concerns e.g. following determinants: population and household, prosperity and poverty, labor market position, level of education, income, participation in preventive health care, visiting a doctor, ... This data from the province is available at the level of the statistical sectors, the smallest administrative units for which data is available. Because this data can be linked to the data from the Colon Cancer screening program, it is possible to examine the relationship between these determinants and participation in preventive colon cancer screening. The major advantage of these linked data is that they are immediately available to the researcher and that they are "complete" (as opposed to data obtained through surveys). The candidate is very involved in statistical analyzes, so that the maximum can be achieved from the data. Ultimately, the intention is to be able to develop targeted interventions for those neighborhoods where participation within the organized program is lower and that can be focused on the determinants that prove to be the most important for those specific neighborhoods. This can be done much more focused than with the available analyses to date. In this way, the ultimate goal is to reduce social inequality for participation in preventive colon cancer research. There will also be collaboration with two other doctoral students who perform the same exercise for breast cancer screening and cervical cancer screening, respectively, so that it can be checked whether there are differences between the determinants of these three Flemish cancer screening programs. For example, it can also be explored which group of women with which profile participates in all three current population surveys, which group in none of the three and which group only in one or two of the three.

Keywords:COLORECTAL CANCER, CANCER SCREENING

Disciplines:Preventive medicine, Epidemiology