‘The insights we get from Our Future Health will help cancer survivors live healthier lives’
“The good news is, we are getting better at helping people survive cancer,” says Krishnan Bhaskaran, Professor of Statistical Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “There’s still a long way to go, but we’ve made promising advances in how we detect and treat the disease.”
“But detecting and treating cancer is only first step. We also have to ask, ‘what happens afterwards?’ How well are cancer survivors in the long-term? Are they living well, rather than just surviving?
“These are really important questions in cancer research – and Our Future Health is going to help us answer them.”
Krishnan is a medical statistician who specialises in cancer survivorship. He leads the BEYOND Cancer group at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “We look at what happens to people’s health after they survive cancer,” he says.
Krishnan recently became a Research Ambassador for Our Future Health. By studying data from our volunteers, he hopes to see the long-term effects of cancer and its treatment. “The work we do on Our Future Health data is important because it will help to inform the healthcare that different cancer patients and survivors are given in the future.
“I hope our research will help doctors to ensure that patients have the best possible chance of not only surviving but also thriving after cancer.”
Bigger numbers, better story
For Krishnan, the sheer size of our research programme is key. “As a scientist studying Our Future Health’s data, I can look at research questions we’ve been wanting to answer for a long time. The detailed data in the programme will allow us to drill down into what’s driving different health conditions after cancer treatment.
“For example, we can look to see whether cancer survivors are more likely to have a heart attack than people who haven’t had cancer. And does it happen more in cancer survivors with particular characteristics?
“We’ll start by looking into the more common cancers, such as breast cancer, colorectal and prostate cancer. Then, as the number of volunteers in the programme grows, we’ll be able to look at rarer cancers.
“This is an exciting prospect because there aren’t many studies with big enough numbers to look at those cancers, and especially to look at the long-term health effects of treatment for them.”
Krishnan gives two other examples of areas where his work can make an impact: fertility and mental health.
“We know that some cancers and treatments can affect fertility, so how many people go on to have children after cancer? Can we find a clue in their health stories that means fewer people will suffer infertility after cancer in the future?
“With mental health, we recently looked at GP records and found that people who’ve been through cancer have higher rates of depression and anxiety than people who haven’t. Medical records don’t catch all mental health problems, which is where Our Future Health can add huge value. The questionnaire data will help us to find the people who’ve had mental health-related symptoms, but who haven’t sought medical support.”
Lifestyle after cancer
Krishnan says our data will also help him to compare the lifestyle decisions of people who have and haven’t had cancer.
“The beauty of Our Future Health’s de-identified, linked data is that you can build a picture of volunteers’ health in the long term.”
“The questionnaire gives us really detailed information about a lot of aspects of volunteers’ lives, such as their diet, their weight, or if they smoke.”
“People are given a lot of health advice, and we’ll be able to see whether this translates to lifestyle changes post cancer. For example, do people change their diet or the amount of physical activity they do? Do people give up smoking? What happens to people’s weight in the years after a cancer diagnosis?
“Our Future Health data will allow us to see much more detail of how cancer treatment affects people’s lifestyle habits.
“The fact that Our Future Health volunteers come from broad age ranges and backgrounds is extremely valuable. Currently we don’t know whether the answer to our questions is the same for all ethnic groups. Hopefully, because the questionnaire is so detailed, we’ll not only know if the risks are higher in particular groups but be able to drill down and find out why, too.”
What we’ll learn in the future
Krishnan hopes his study will lead to findings that he and his colleagues can publish in an academic journal. But this is just the first step. Ultimately he hopes his group’s work will translate Our Future Health’s data into new discoveries that improve the way we tackle disease, leading to better health among people who have been affected by cancer.
“The kind of evidence we’re generating can inform doctors’ treatment guidelines,” he says. “It can help them know how to optimise cancer care for long-term good health. And after people have recovered, doctors will have a better picture of which patients are at higher risk of other health conditions, and how to manage them.
“Please know that every volunteer counts, when it comes to our research. Your data gives us valuable information – whether you’ve had cancer or not. Everyone can help researchers learn the answers to important public health questions about cancer treatment. And those answers will make a difference.”
More from our ‘Research In Focus’ series
- Professor Cathryn Lewis: ‘Our Future Health is a goldmine for studies on depression’
- Professor Jennifer Quint: ‘Our Future Health’s data will move the needle for lung disease researchers like me’
- Meet the first researchers who are studying Our Future Health’s data
Let’s prevent disease together
By volunteering for Our Future Health, you can help health researchers discover new ways to prevent, detect and treat common conditions such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke and Alzheimer’s.