The 2019 International Cancer Screening Network (ICSN) Conference took place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on the 3-5 June. The Decision Modeling Center (DMC) team was well represented at the ICSN. The theme of this year was “Screening in Balance”, emphasizing the importance of continuously weighing the benefits and harms of cancer screening programs. This theme fits perfectly within the research objectives of the DMC.

Federica Inturrisi, Marjolein Greuter, Eddymurphy Akwiwu, Janneke Wilschut, Veerle Coupé, and Hans Berkhof attended sessions in the fields of cervical, colorectal, breast, lung and prostate cancer screening. With this broad range of topics, ICSN provided an opportunity to exchange practical challenges, research methods, knowledge, and results in different fields of organized cancer screening. Key themes that were discussed included the impact of screening policies, controversial issues in screening, individualized screening, reaching hard-to-reach populations and communicating screening in balance.

Our team also got the opportunity to present their work at the ICSN: “Projected impact of human papillomavirus vaccination on cervical screening outcomes” by Federica Inturrisi, “Acceptability and clinical accuracy of HPV testing on self-collected samples for women attending routine cervical screening” by Hans Berkhof, and “Can a biomarker triage test reduce colonoscopy burden in fecal immunochemical test screening?” by Marjolein Greuter. These presentations led to excellent discussions with other experts in the field.

We had the chance to network, start new collaborations and enjoy networking events such as the conference reception and dinner. We also had the opportunity to meet one of our collaborators from Cancer Council NSW (Australia), Dr. Jie-Bin Lew, who has being working with us on several colorectal cancer projects.

More information on the conference, abstracts and presentations can be found at the ICSN website