News
Starting in Spring 2024, the CASCADE study will be supported by three new additional sites in Lucerne, Solothurn, and Valais. We welcome our new collaborators and we are looking forward to connect with as many families concerned with hereditary forms of cancer as possible.
Our associate, Dr. Aceti, will be presenting our work as a podium presentation at the Association International des Sociologies de Langue Française (AISLF) conference in Ottawa, Canada, from July 8-12, 2024. We congratulate Dr. Aceti on this prestigious achievement!
Lottery
We greatly appreciate your participation in the CASCADE study. As a token of our appreciation, every January we randomly selected one participating code to receive a 300 CHF Manor voucher. The lucky participant selected for January 2024 lives in the canton of Ticino. Congratulations!
Project status
To date, 713 individuals have signed an informed consent and 565 individuals have completed the first survey. Of these, 442 are women and 123 are men. Almost all (95%) have agreed to be part of the cohort and will be contacted again within the next 24 months to provide updated health information. The mailing of the second survey was launched in March 2020 and continues until today to participants who have been in the cohort for at least 24 months. The mailing of the third survey successfully started in early spring 2023 for participants who have been in the cohort for at least 48 months.
Individual interviews or focus groups have taken place with 77 individuals who have shared their experiences with us. Additional interviews or focus groups are planned in 2025, where we will explore additional topics regarding decisions for risk management and medical surveillance. We hope that you will be interested to participate in this part of the study.
» More information about the study
DIALOGUE randomized controlled trial
In late 2023, we successfully launched enrollment for our new DIALOGUE study! The DIALOGUE study is a randomized trial that tests a digital health platform for individuals that carry pathogenic variants in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes and their blood relatives. The digital platform provides information about hereditary forms of cancer, management of cancer risk, and family communication regarding genetic testing results. We hope that testing the digital platform will be successful, so that we can also adapt it for families concerned with other pathogenic variants, for example, for Lynch syndrome.
Currently we have already recruited 24 participants, 19 of whom have successfully completed the baseline survey. Our goal is to recruit 125 women or men with a pathogenic variant in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, and as many of their biological relatives as possible. Only then we will know if the platform works for the entire family. For more information about the DIALOGUE trial, please click here.
Workshop
The CASCADE consortium organized a workshop with international experts to discuss the challenges of Cascade Genetic Screening in Switzerland. The workshop report describes the main findings of the workshop leading the CASCADE study.
The workshop report describes the main findings of the workshop leading the CASCADE study.
Study Protocol
The Protocol Paper describes the methodological approach of the CASCADE study and ensures transparency and scientific integrity. In addition, this article draws the scientific community’s attention to our research activities. We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the contribution of our research partners to the scientific development of the CASCADE study.