Predicting Effective Adaptation To Breast Cancer To Help Women To BOUNCE Back

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide accounting for 28% of the total cancer cases in the WHO European Region. According to the WHO, despite all advances in medicine and preventive strategies, the incidence of breast cancer in developing countries is still rising. In spite of this devastating fact, the mortality of breast cancer in the developing world seems to be decreasing, with five-year relative survival rate for female invasive breast cancer patients rising from 75% in the mid-1970s to 90% today and in cases of localized breast cancer even reaching 98.5%. As a result, there is a dramatic rise in the number of breast cancer survivors in Europe, posing new challenges to the healthcare system. Coping with breast cancer becomes a major socio-economic challenge calling for novel strategies for understanding, predicting and increasing the resilience of women with breast cancer to all the stressful challenges and experiences and ensuring a better and faster recovery.

In this context, an interdisciplinary consortium of experts was formed in 2017 in response to a HORIZON 2020 call for Personalized Medicine research and innovation solutions. The product of this collaboration was BOUNCE a funded project developed to explore factors that influence breast cancer patients’ long-term psychological resilience and their capacity to resume a normal everyday life and work following breast cancer treatments.

Resilience experts have developed a working model of resilience to breast cancer, taking into consideration also related clinical, biological, social, and psychological factors. This model is tested in a prospective multicenter study that recruits large numbers of early-phase breast cancer patients from specialized cancer treatment centers in Finland, Israel, Italy, and Portugal. This patient information will be largely registered through an innovative, interactive mobile app designed by Noona Healthcare. Information technology experts will then apply innovative computational tools to identify key factors involved in building and maintaining resilience in these women.

The BOUNCE Consortium includes experts from the field of oncology, computer modeling, psychology, and social medicine from Finland, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Israel. Helsinki University Hospital (HUH) Comprehensive Cancer Center has been chosen to coordinate the multi-center study on how to support breast cancer patients and improve their resilience. Consortium members are: Helsinki University Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center (Finland), Foundation for Research and Technology -Hellas (Greece), European Institute of Oncology (Italy), Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (Greece), NHG Consulting (Finland), Hebrew University School of Social Work and Social Welfare (Israel), Singular Logic (Greece), Champalimaud Clinical Center & Foundation (Portugal), Noona Healthcare (Finland).