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Expert groups

Cancer diseases

Project goals

Cancer is the second most common cause of death in Germany after cardiovascular diseases. Various factors can contribute to the development of cancer. Some factors are preventable, others are not. Preventable and non-preventable factors can interact.

In addition to other pre-existing conditions, the German National Cohort (NAKO) also records cancer among the participants. In addition, information on possible cancers is requested from the cancer registries of the federal states for all NAKO participants.

An evaluation of the cancer diagnoses in the medical history of NAKO participants is important in order to be able to estimate what proportion of NAKO participants have been free of cancer in the past. Further analyses of new cancer cases can be built on this basis.

The tasks of the expert group are

  • Researching the occurrence, frequency and possible causes of cancer development within the NAKO participants.
  • Comparison of all NAKO participants with the cancer registries of the federal states.

First results

Comparison with cancer registries:

By comparing the data of 180,921 study participants, which corresponds to 88 per cent of the NAKO participants in the baseline study, with the cancer registries, 17,516 cancer cases were identified among the NAKO participants. These are spread across 15,518 participants, which means that some participants had multiple tumors.

The most common types of cancer among NAKO participants are

  1. Breast cancer
  2. Prostate cancer
  3. Colorectal cancer
  4. Skin cancer
  5. Lung cancer
  6. Endometrial cancer
  7. Pancreatic cancer
  8. Ovarian cancer
  9. Liver cancer

Publications

Nimptsch K, Jaeschke L, Chang-Claude J, et al. Selbstberichtete Krebserkrankungen in der NAKO Gesundheitsstudie: Erfassungsmethoden und erste Ergebnisse. Bundesgesundheitsbl. 2020;63(4):385-396. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00103-020-03113-y

Westerman R, Mühlichen M. Avoidable Cancer Mortality in Germany Since Reunification: Regional Variation and Sex Differences. Front Public Health. 2019;7:187. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00187

Hajek A, Becher H, Brenner H, et al. Personality and the use of cancer screenings – Results of the German National Cohort. Preventive Medicine Reports. 2024;41:102677. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102677

Speakers

Prof. Dr. Rudolf Kaaks
Prof. Dr. Dr. Michael Leitzmann (Deputy Spokesperson)