Elevated polygenic cancer risk scores in a German population sample: prevalence, risk factors and attitudes towards risk-adapted screening (NACOP)
Description
- The increasing availability of tools for cancer risk prediction, such as polygenic risk scores (PRS) combined with other factors, opens up promising avenues for risk-adapted cancer screening. The NACOP project is intended to answer key questions relevant to the implementation of risk-adapted screening based on PRS. First, given that PRS were mainly developed separately for each entity, the cross-entity prevalence of elevated PRS in the population is unknown, although this is essential to concretely design such programmes. Second, data on the current preventive behaviour of persons with elevated PRS are lacking, even though this is crucial to determining the prevention needs in this at-risk population. Third, the use of genetic information for risk-adapted cancer screening raises questions about acceptance and communication that must be addressed.
Using baseline data from the full NAKO sample, the project aims to
A) measure the prevalence of elevated PRS for common screening-relevant cancers and
B) investigate the association between elevated PRS, other risk factors and preventive behaviour. Furthermore, it aims to
C) assess the acceptance of using genetic information for risk prediction based on a survey in the NAKO Bremen sample (N=10,000) and an additionally recruited population-representative sample (N=3,000), complemented by qualitative research on communication strategies and decision aids.
The longitudinal design of the NAKO offers an excellent opportunity to further develop risk-adapted cancer screening over the next decades, for which this project will lay the crucial foundations. The study is being conducted in collaboration with the Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP) at Faculty 11 of the University of Bremen.
Funding period
- Begin: February 2025
End: January 2028
Sponsor
- German Cancer Aid
Contact
Project management (national)
- Koordination: BIPS, Kooperationspartner: Prof. Dr. Benjamin Schüz, Universität Bremen, Bremen, Deutschland