Studies to improve survival and quality of life among women with gynecological cancer

We want to improve the treatment for patients with gynecological cancer with the aim of prolonging survival without causing short- and long-term side-effects affecting daily life activities

Gynecological cancer, including breast cancer, is the most common malignant disease among women. Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death among women with gynecological malignancies in developed countries. Most women are diagnosed with advanced stage of disease which reflects the lack of efficient screening methods and non-specific early symptoms.

Our understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms behind ovarian cancer, and the insight of the heterogeneity, has paved the way for personalized medicine. We need to continue the search for prognostic biomarkers in order to find new targeted therapies.  

In addition, prognosis may dramatically be improved through prevention e.g. prophylactic surgery in germ-line mutation carriers. In comparison, the prognosis for women with breast- and endometrial cancer is in general very good and these women have a long life expectancy. A long-life living sometimes with treatment-related side-effects negatively impacting daily life activities.

Methods and impact 

Our research program on ovarian cancer focus on evaluating new treatment strategies, identifying treatment predictive and prognostic markers for various subtypes of ovarian cancer (STROVA, ER-OV) and studying side-effects induced by prophylactic removal of the ovaries among premenopausal women carrying germ-line BRCA mutations (CABSOE).

In ovarian- and breast cancer we want to prevent long-lasting peripheral neurotoxicity following chemotherapy with taxanes, with our without carboplatin, and therefore try to identify clinical and genetic risk factors (Neurotox study).

In endometrial cancer we evaluate the performance of robotic-assisted surgery versus laparotomy in relation to lymph node yields, postoperative complications and economy (RASHEC study).

We also perform population-based register studies based on real world data from the Swedish Quality Registry for gynecologic cancer addressing questions such as treatment patterns, coherence to guidelines and prognostic markers (SweGCG e.g. TPOC study). 

Research group

Neuropathy study

  • Kristina Engvall, PhD student, Linköping University
  • Henrik Green, co-supervisor
  • Freddi Lewin, co-supervisor

SweGCG

ER-OV study

  • Ebba Bagge, medical student
  • Ulrica Beiron, pre-PhD
  • Per Rosenberg, clinical supervisor

Research collaboration

CABSOE

  • Prof Gillian Thomas, Toronto and Linköpings University
  • Prof Preben Kjölhede, Linköpings University
  • Elisabet Classon, PhD, Linköpings University

STROVA

  • Sara Corvigno, PhD student, Karolinska Institutet
  • Hanna Dahlstrand, main supervisor, Karolinska Institutet
  • Arne Östman, co-supervisor, Karolinska Institutet

RASHEC

  • Sara Salehi, PhD student, Karolinska Institutet
  • Henrik Falconer, main supervisor, Karolinska Institutet 

Clinical trials are performed in collaboration with Nordic Society of Gynecologic Cancer (NSGO), European Network of gynecologic Oncology Trial groups (ENGOT) and Gynecologic Cancer Intergroup (GCIG). 

Principal investigator

Collaborators

Organisation