BEYOND Cancer: Using Big Data to Identify Opportunities for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention after Cancer. (360G-Wellcome-107731_Z_15_Z)

The long-term health of the growing numbers of cancer survivors is an increasing priority. Certain cancer treatments have known or suspected cardiotoxicities, but the overall risks of specific cardiovascular diseases among survivors of different cancers have not been systematically quantified. It is also unclear whether those at highest risk are being adequately identified by existing risk stratification tools, and offered appropriate preventive interventions. Harnessing linked e-Health data from the UK/Denmark to generate large site-specific cancer survivor cohorts, I will address these issues using predictive and causal modelling, matched cohort designs, and descriptive epidemiology. The goals are to: 1) QUANTIFY the relative and absolute risks of key cardiovascular diseases in survivors of specific cancers, and investigate determinants of increased risk; 2) IDENTIFY those at risk both with existing risk stratification tools, and by developing recalibrated and new tools inco rporating cancer-specific information, comparing the predictive accuracy of these approaches; 3) INFORM PREVENTION by investigating whether recommended pharmacological interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease are optimally implemented among cancer survivors. The work will also lay foundations for better e-Health research in this field, by building experience, developing methods, and establishing access/linkage to rich new sources of cancer treatment data.