Individual Strategies for Breast Cancer Surveillance Based on Aggregated Familial Information

摘要

The problem of optimal cancer surveillance is set up as a search for optimal scheduling of medical examinations throughout the lifetime of an individual. Optimal surveillance scheduling strategies allowing for risk variables may be used to further increase the efficacy of breast cancer early detection. To accomplish the general and specific aims of this project, we plan to proceed as follows: (1) develop and implement computer programs for estimating the hazard functions from data on breast cancer incidence; (2) conduct analysis of real data and select significant prognostic variables for a large cohort of women identified through the Utah Population Data Base and the Utah Cancer Registry; (3) construct optimal schedules of breast cancer surveillance and evaluate their potential for enhancing the efficacy of breast cancer detection. This annual report is concerned with estimation of the hazard function and other characteristics of the natural history of breast cancer from epidemiological data.