The UCT Mainz has a long-standing expertise in cancer epidemiology and outcome research with a specific focus on the identification of risk factors for cancer incidence and mortality and on late effects after cancer treatment. Research on late effects comprises analyses of survival, occurrence of secondary malignancies and cardiovascular late effects, quality of life, psychosocial rehabilitation, and cancer survivorship.
 

• Achievements
• Aims
• Most significant publications

•  A Core Facility Health Care Research was established in 2018 to support researchers of the UMM and its partners in developing research projects, designing their study and applying for funding. 

• Another group at the UCT Mainz was established to investigate costs of treatments and health care, the Core Facility Health Economics. Here, all partners of the UCT Mainz network can receive consultations regarding their health economics research questions.

• The collaboration of the Epidemiology and Outcome Research Group with the UCT Mainz Clinical Studies Group was intensified. Regular meetings enabled better patient enrolment and the development of new research projects.

• We established a new module in our Master Programme Epidemiology, the Module Cancer Registries. This is now a regularly offered elective module for all students.

• Members of the UCT Mainz work closely together to investigate the effects of ionizing radiation on health (ISIBELa II; EsKaRa). In close collaboration with colleagues of the Clinic for Radio- Oncology, the Division of Medical Physics and the Division of Radiation Epidemiology research projects analyzing potential risk factors and outcome are discussed and further developed.

• Within the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), we participate in and lead several projects to develop modern instruments to measure quality of life (QoL) in cancer patients and assess clinical benefit of anti-neoplastic treatment. For example, together with international partners from 29 countries, we revised the previous version of the EORTC head & neck cancer module in order to enable the capturing of QoL issues associated with modern treatment regimens. We lead the international development of the QoL module for thyroid cancer and we enrolled patients for the modules sarcoma, cancer cachexia, fatigue, and oral health.

• PanCareLIFE is an EU Framework 7 Programme in the Health Theme that studies the impact of treatment regimes on long-term health and QoL in survivors of cancer diagnosed during childhood or young adulthood. The EU-funded follow-up study PanCareSurFup is currently ongoing. The Cardiac and Vascular Late Sequelae in Long-term Survivors of Childhood Cancer (CVSS) project funded by the DFG aimed at exploring genetic determinants, biological assays and clinical dose constraints to identify patients with an increased risk for late cardiovascular effects. We compared data from the German Childhood Cancer Registry and the population based Gutenberg Health Study.

Future aims include the integration of quality of life measurements with patient-reported outcomes as a standard into all phase III cancer clinical trials at the UCT Mainz and the improvement of the infrastructure for high-dimensional data analyses with the formation of a data hub at the UCT Mainz. In addition, we will establish a collaboration with the Sports Science Faculty to investigate the association between physical activity and immune response.

• Renovanz, M., Hickmann, A.K., Nadji-Ohl, M., Keric, N., Weimann, E., Wirtz, C.R., Singer, S., Ringel, F., Coburger, J. 2020. Health-related quality of life and distress in elderly vs. younger patients with high-grade glioma-results of a multicenter study. Support Care Cancer. 28(11), 5165-5175.

• Leinert, E., Kreienberg, R., Wockel, A., Kuhn, T., Flock, F., Felberbaum, R., Janni, W., Taylor, K., Singer, S., Schwentner, L. 2020. Survivors of primary breast cancer 5 years after surgery: follow-up care, long-term problems, and treatment regrets. Results of the prospective BRENDA II-study. Arch Gynecol Obstet. 301(3), 761-767.

• Erdmann, F., Hvidtfeldt, U.A., Sørensen, M., Raaschou-Nielsen, O. 2020. Socioeconomic differences in the risk of childhood central nervous system tumors in Denmark: a nationwide register-based case-control study. Cancer Causes Control. 31(10), 915-929.

• Singer, S., Danker, H., Meixensberger, J., Briest, S., Dietz, A., Kortmann, R.D., Stolzenburg, J.U., Kersting, A., Roick, J. 2019. Structured multi-disciplinary psychosocial care for cancer patients and the perceived quality of care from the patient perspective: a cluster-randomized trial. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 145(11):2845-2854. 

• Ernst, M., Tibubos, A.N., Unterrainer, J., Burghardt, J., Brähler, E., Wild, P.S., Jünger, C., Faber, J., Schneider, A., Beutel, M.E. 2019. Status and predictors of planning ability in adult long-term survivors of CNS tumors and other types of childhood cancer. Sci Rep. 13;9(1):7290.

• Singer, S., Amdal, C.D., Hammerlid, E., Tomaszewska, I.M., Silva, J.C., Mehanna, H., Santos, M., Inhestern, J., Brannan, C., Yarom, N., Fullerton, A., Pinto, M., Arraras, J.I., Kiyota, N., Bonomo, P., Sherman, A.C., Baumann, I., Galalae, R., Gonzalez, L.F., Nicolatou-Galitis, O., Abdel-Hafeez, Z., Raber-Durlacher, J., Schmalz, C., Zotti, P., Boehm, A., Hofmeister, D., Trivic, S.K., Loo, S., Chie, W.C., Bjordal, K., Herlofson, B.B., Gregoire, V., Licitra, L. 2019. International validation of the revised European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Head and Neck Cancer Module, the EORTC QLQ-HN43: Phase IV. Head and Neck-Journal for the Sciences and Specialties of the Head and Neck. 41 (6):1725-1737.

• Byrne, J., Grabow, D., Campbell, H., O'Brien, K., Bielack, S., Am Zehnhoff-Dinnesen, A., Calaminus, G., Kremer, L., Langer, T., van den Heuvel-Eibrink, M.M., van Dulmen-den Broeder, E., Baust, K., Bautz, A., Beck, J.D., Berger, C., Binder, H., Borgmann-Staudt, A., Broer, L., Cario, H., Casagranda, L., Clemens, E., Deuster, D., de Vries, A., Dirksen, U., Winther, J.F., Fosså, S., Font-Gonzalez, A., Grandage, V., Haupt, R., Hecker-Nolting, S., Hjorth, L., Kaiser, M., Kenborg, L., Kepak, T., Kepáková, K., Knudsen, L.E., Krawczuk-Rybak, M., Kruseova, J., Kuehni, C.E., Kunstreich, M., Kuonen, R., Lackner, H., Leiper, A., Loeffen, E.A.H., Luks, A., Modan-Moses, D., Mulder, R., Parfitt, R., Paul, N.W., Ranft, A., Ruud, E., Schilling, R., Spix, C., Stefanowicz, J., Strauβ, G., Uitterlinden, A.G., van den Berg, M., van der Kooi, A.L., van Dijk, M., van Leeuwen, F., Zolk, O., Zöller, D., Kaatsch, P. 2018. PanCareLIFE: The scientific basis for a European project to improve long-term care regarding fertility, ototoxicity and health-related quality of life after cancer occurring among children and adolescents. Eur J Cancer. 103, 227-237.

• Singer, S., Bartels, M., Briest, S., Einenkel, J., Niederwieser, D., Papsdorf, K., Stolzenburg, J.U., Künstler, S., Taubenheim, S., Krauß, O. 2017. Socio-economic disparities in long-term cancer survival-10 year follow- up with individual patient data. Support Care Cancer. 25(5):1391-1399.

• Wollschläger, D., Karle, H., Stockinger, M., Bartkowiak, D., Bührdel, S., Merzenich, H., Wiegel, D., Blettner, M., Schmidberger, H. 2016. Radiation dose distribution in functional heart regions from tangential breast cancer radiotherapy. Radiotherapy and Oncology. 119: 65-70.

• König, J., R. van Ewijk, K. Kuhr, H. Schmidberger, A. Wockel, R. Kreienberg, and M. Blettner. 2016. Radiotherapy effects on early breast cancer survival in observational and randomized studies: a systematic analysis of advantages, disadvantages and differences between the two study types. Breast cancer. 23(3):415-24.

• Hjorth, L., R. Haupt, R. Skinner, D. Grabow, J. Byrne, S. Karner, G. Levitt, G. Michel, H. van der Pal, E. Bardi, J.D. Beck, F. de Vathaire, S. Essig, E. Frey, S. Garwicz, M. Hawkins, Z. Jakab, M. Jankovic, B. Kazanowska, T. Kepak, L. Kremer, H. Lackner, E. Sugden, M. Terenziani, L.Z. Zaletel, P. Kaatsch, and N. PanCare. 2015. Survivorship after childhood cancer: PanCare: a European Network to promote optimal long-term care. European journal of cancer. 51:1203-1211. 

• Kaatsch, P., C. Hafner, G. Calaminus, M. Blettner, and M. Tulla. 2015. Pediatric germ cell tumors from 1987 to 2011: incidence rates, time trends, and survival. Pediatrics. 135:e136-143.