Grant: Operating Grant

The proposed research aims to enable physicians who provide follow-up care for cancer survivors to predict, with a clinically appropriate degree of precision, the risk of long-term outcomes of cancer and its treatment more accurately, thereby assisting their work for improving survivors' quality of life. Assessing the risk of various late effects is a critical task for effective follow-up of cancer survivors. Appropriate screening and preventive strategies can be applied for "high-risk" survivors to reduce adverse outcomes of cancer and its treatment. The ability to accurately assess the risk of late effects also serves as the basis for developing and evaluating new intervention strategies. The proposed study investigates a completely new methodological framework that is expected to improve the assessment of various late effects risks among cancer survivors. Specifically, through the newly proposed framework, we will be able to accurately identify high-risk subgroups and precisely estimate their risk levels. This will enable: (a) survivors to avoid unnecessary anxieties and concerns if they are not at high risk; (b) survivors to avoid potential health risks associated with over-screening (e.g., medical exposures such as X-rays); (c) physicians to advise survivors with more appropriate follow-up plans; and (d) a more appropriate use of health-care resources.