Screening programmes improve survival rates through early detection in most major tumour types, including colorectal cancer. Moreover, they produce highly relevant data sets for further (data-driven) research on early cancer diagnostics. Typical research questions based on clinical needs usually concern early cancer detection and the improvement of the risk/benefit ratio of screening.

This use case will correlate a representative and consented subset of data extracted from the screening programs in three countries to evaluate risk/benefit of screening in order to optimise screening strategies.

To name an example, the fine tuning of the colorectal cancer screening tests focuses on the proteins directly derived from the tumour (mtFecal Immunochemical Test – mtFIT). Validated mathematical modelling of mtFIT parameters has demonstrated a reduction in incidence and mortality, very economical, compatibility with current logistics, detection of more advanced cancer, and has very low false positives. Data generated during the mtFIT prospective validation study include informed consent data, FIT/mtFIT data, clinical data (colonoscopy and pathology results), and biobank-related data.

EOSC4Cancer will facilitate better data flow, facilitate research, and good clinical practice amongst health professionals through its high-quality infrastructure for knowledge databases and repositories.