Anna Johansson

About me

I am a biostatistician and cancer epidemiologist. My research focuses on cancer and reproductive factors in women. In 2016, I defended my thesis “Pregnancy and breast cancer: Risk patterns, tumour characteristics and prognosis”. My ongoing research is in pregnancy-associated cancer, reproductive outcomes in cancer survivors and breast cancer epidemiology in women of all ages, in particular risk and survival of subtypes of breast cancer. I utilise the powerful national breast cancer registers in Sweden and Norway, and in combination with other health registers. My methodological interests are register-based research, epidemiological designs and cancer survival analysis. I have also taken lead in developing policy and guidelines concerning research documentation and data management at MEB and Karolinska Institutet. Between 2007-2010, I was head of the Applied Biostatistics Group at MEB.

I am Visiting Researcher at the Cancer Registry of Norway leading projects on breast cancer using population-based cancer data. I am also project manager and co-leader of two large Nordic cancer research projects on i) cancer and COVID-19 and ii) cancer survival trends in the Nordic region.

I have collaborations with clinical researchers at Karolinska University Hospital, Capio St Göran and Uppsala University Hospital.

Postdoctoral periods include the Cancer Registry of Norway (2017-2018) and Karolinska Institutet (2018-2020).  

Research description

Research on cancer and pregnancy. My primary research interest is cancer in relation to pregnancy and reproductive history, with a special focus on pregnancy-associated cancer, i.e. cancer diagnosed during or within one or two years after a pregnancy. The research questions I am addressing concern the increasing incidence trend, risk patterns before and after delivery, tumour characteristics and survival. I also study other reproductive factors, such as age at births, number of children, infertility and IVF treatment, in relation to cancer risk and prognosis.

Due to improvements in cancer treatments, the number of young cancer survivors is increasing. It is important to evaluate their possibilities to form families after end of treatment. One of my research aims is therefor to study reproductive potential and fertility after cancer, both by clinical factors and by previous reproductive history.

 

Research on breast cancer. My second research interest is breast cancer among women. I am specifically studying how survival has improved over time, and how it depends on patient, tumour and treatment factors. One of my projects relates to identifying predictors for long-term survival, given that breast cancer patients have an increased relapse risk many years after diagnosis. I am also interested in identifying subgroups of patients at particular high risk for recurrence and treatment complications, in particular after accounting for differences in age, comorbidity and socioeconomic status.

Since 2017, I am affiliated with the Cancer Registry in Norway. I am also using Swedish Breast Cancer Quality Registry data to address these questions.

 

Nordic research. Nordic cancer registries are a goldmine to cancer epidemiology with nationwide coverage of a population of more than 27 million. In collaboration with cancer researchers from Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, I am leading and co-leading three large Nordic cancer research efforts on i) pregnancy and cancer, ii) cancer and COVID-19 and iii) cancer survival across the Nordic countries.

 

Methods for register-based epidemiology

As a statistician and epidemiologist, I am particularly interested in finding the best way to utilize register data to estimate disease risks in the population, for example by clever study designs and statistical methods for register-based research.

In my research I utilize the large Swedish population-based health registers available for research. These unique data sources can be used to answer many questions in way that is impossible in many other countries. In some of my research projects, I develop new methodology and study designs to be able to answer our questions.

 

Research documentation and Data management

The quality of research is highly dependent on the quality of the underlying data. I have worked effortlessly for many years to improve the procedures for research documentation and data management within research projects at KI. This includes everything from standardized variable lists and codes, commented and structure statistical programming, version control to documentation of research projects and ethical approvals.

I have been leading the development of research documentation guidelines in our department, as well as teaching hands-on techniques for research documentation to epidemiologists, clinicians and researchers at KI and elsewhere. I am regularly an invited speaker on this topic.  

A video of my lecture 2018-11-22 at the KI Library Workshop is available at the link below or in the menu to the right. Slides for this presentation are available on request anna.johansson@ki.se

 

https://play.ki.se/media/Data+Management+and+research+documentation+for+researchers/0_h64ki6v7

 

 

Teaching portfolio

I have been involved in teaching and course organising of:

• Survival analysis (biostat III), within the Doctoral Programme in Epidemiology

• Epidemiology II, within the Doctoral Programme in Epidemiology

• Competing risks and multistate models

• Epidemiological designs in a statistical framework

• Workshops on epidemiological designs and cancer survival analysis

• Good Data Management Practice in Epidemiology

• Guidelines for Data Management in Clinical Research  

Education

• 2016 - PhD (Medical Sciences), KI
• 1999 - MSc (Mathematical statistics), Stockholm University