Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network Breast Working Group

The VBCSS collaborates with the CISNET Breast Working Group (BWG) to conduct innovative modeling research focused on new precision oncology paradigms that are expected to re-define breast cancer control best practices.  The VBCSS provides data inputs to the simulation models via our participation in the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC), and VBCSS investigators Dr. Brian Sprague and Dr. Donald Weaver provide scientific expertise in breast cancer screening and diagnosis to the CISNET modeling teams. Significant topics are selected where modeling is suited to fill evidence gaps and facilitate clinical and policy translation. Unique components of our approach include modeling of absolute risk of disease accounting for multiple risk factors, addressing important comorbidities—specifically type 2 diabetes—that affect both disease risk and survival, exploring emerging biomarker-based approaches for screening, providing guidance regarding precision systemic treatments and their impact on quality of life in survivors, and investigating race disparities.

The aims of this study include:

  1. Evaluate the impact of new precision screening approaches.
  2. Evaluate the impact of precision treatment paradigms in the adjuvant, neo-adjuvant, and metastatic setting.
  3. Synthesize the first two aims to quantify the contributions of precision screening and precision treatment to US breast cancer mortality reductions.
  4. Provide evidence to guide interventions to reduce race disparities by quantifying multiple risk, screening, treatment, and survival factors that impact disparities.

Each aim includes three or more model groups selected for their unique structure and includes outside collaborators and junior investigators. The models will share common inputs and provide a standard set of outcomes for benefits, harms, and costs. Continuously funded for the past 19 years, the modeling teams have published 204 research papers informing public health policy decisions and trained 13 junior investigators.

For this study the BWG is partnering with the American Cancer Society (ACS), the American College of Radiology (ACR), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC), among others. The experienced Coordinating Center is providing the infrastructure to support the project goals including resource sharing and model accessibility. This exceptional environment provides unprecedented synergy and leveraging of resources to address new research questions and support career development that would not otherwise be possible. Overall, this research is advancing modeling research and helping guide breast cancer control policy. 

The CISNET BWG has recently helped inform the United States Preventative Task Force (USPSTF) updated recommendations for women to begin biennial breast cancer screening at age 40. You can access the full findings in this JAMA article.

Please click here to access publications associated with this study.

This project is funded by grant U01 CA253911 by the National Cancer Institute (NCI)