Workstream 1: Understanding Cancer Risk
Identifying cancer risk factors and developing better tools for prevention and early detection.
The Full Spectrum of Risk, Diagnosis, Treatment, Survivorship, and Equity
Connecting Large and Complementary Data Sources
CIRCE brings together researchers from multiple disciplines to study women’s cancers across the full spectrum of risk, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and equity.
Our research combines cancer biology with imaging, epidemiology, genomics, psychology, demography, health economics, and register-based science to better understand not only how cancer develops and is treated, but also how it affects women’s lives, families, and society.
A central strength of CIRCE is the ability to connect large and complementary data sources, including registries, biobanks, clinical data, imaging, and molecular data, and to analyze them from a life-course perspective. This makes it possible to ask questions that cannot be answered within a single discipline or dataset alone.
Projects
Selected research projects
CIRCE projects operate at the intersection of biology, gender, clinical care, demographics, socioeconomics, and survivorship. Here we highlight several projects.
Workstreams
Our research is organized into five interconnected workstreams
Together, these work streams reflect CIRCE’s ambition to generate research that is scientifically strong, clinically relevant, and socially meaningful.
Workstream 2: Personalizing Cancer Treatment
Understanding who benefits from treatment, who is harmed, and how care can be made safer and more precise.
Workstream 3: Living Well Beyond Cancer
Improving quality of life, resilience, and long-term outcomes for patients and families.
Workstream 4: Achieving Equitable Cancer Care
Reducing disparities in cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship.
Workstream 5: Building the Future of Women's Cancer Research
Training the next generation of researchers, fostering collaboration, and translating research into impact.
Publications
Latest publications
CIRCE researchers produce scientific publications, reports, and other research outputs across a wide range of fields relevant to women’s cancers. These include studies in cancer biology, genomics, imaging, psychology, epidemiology, survivorship, and health equity, as well as interdisciplinary work that bridges these areas. Our publications section will highlight both recent outputs and selected key papers that reflect the breadth and aims of CIRCE’s research.
Show all publications| Title | Authors (CIRCE PI's in Bold) | JOURNAL | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| RECIST 1.1 and PERCIST for response assessment in metastatic breast cancer: feasibility and agreement in a real‑world retrospective cohort study |
| Eur J Radiol | September 2026 |
| Serum Levels of Thyroid Hormones in Relation to Breast Cancer Prognosis: A Multicentre Cohort Study | Brange A, Heyman Y, Demircan K, Vallon-Christersson J, Malmberg M, Saal LH, Rydén L, Borg A, Schomburg L, Manjer J | Cancer Medicine | September 2026 |
| Heterogeneous treatment response in metastatic breast cancer: discordance between FDG-PET and CT classification | Cancer Imaging | August 2026 | |
| Tracking structural variants in early breast cancer using a high-sensitivity ctDNA assay predicts relapse in the post-neoadjuvant setting: the multicenter ALIENOR trial | Blaye C, Bidard FC, Hue L, Howarth K, Pierga JY, Dalenc F, Jacot W, Djerroudi L, Potonnier W, Dumas V, Lalet C, Maréchal M, Pulido M, Brunet M, Salabert L, Venat L, Maran-Gonzalez A, Saal LH, Franchet C, Birkeälv S, MacGrogan G, Bonnefoi H | ESMO Open | July 2026 |
| Artificial Intelligence Detection Scores in Screening Mammography for Early Breast Cancer Alerts | Hickman S, Gialias P, Schurz H, Cossío F, Choi T, Tsirikoglou A, Gustafsson H, Zackrisson S, Strand F. | Radiology | June 2026 |
| NeoCircle: pre- and post-operative circulating tumor DNA dynamics predicts survival in neoadjuvant-treated early breast cancer | George AM, Chen Y, Gladchuk S, Alcaide M, Dalal H, Meng P, Brueffer C, Saghir H, Kimbung S, Aaltonen K, Oton L, Rushton C, Birkeälv S, Jönsson M, Zackrisson S, Skarping I, Förnvik D, Zander L, Honeth G, Woodhouse S, Howarth K, Borg Å, Ehinger A, Malmberg M, Rydén L, Loman N, Saal LH. | EMBO Mol Med | May 2026 |
| The Meaning of Surveillance in Women With a Hereditary Risk of Breast Cancer: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study | Sjöqvist AS, Zackrisson S, Gårdling J, Bolejko A | J Clin Nurs | May 2026 |
| HER2-targeted PET-imaging with [68Ga]Ga-ABY-025 to predict targeted-therapy response in HER2-expressing metastatic breast cancer: study protocol of a multicenter, prospective, open-label trial | Altena R, Wiklander OPB, Romdhani NS, Kistner A, Klintman M, Skarping I, Lindman H, Rodriguez VS, Frisell O, Lindgren P, Bratteby K, Jussing E, Feldwisch J, Frejd FY, Cascales HS, Siikanen J, Hindorf C and Tran TA | Front. Oncol. | April 2026 |
| Cultural origins of preventive health care utilization | Bietenbeck J, Maschmann L, Nilsson T, Spika D | Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization | December 2025 |
Funding
Research grants
CIRCE is made possible through a major long-term center grant from Forte and the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet). Beyond the center’s core funding, CIRCE researchers are also supported by a broad portfolio of national and international grants. This diverse funding base reflects both the scientific strength of the researchers involved and the importance of the questions CIRCE seeks to address. We are deeply grateful to all current and future funders who make this work possible and who share the ambition to strengthen women’s cancer research for the benefit of patients, families, and societies.
