The Socioeconomic Consequences in Adult Life after Childhood Cancer in Scandinavia (SALiCCS) research program was initiated in 2016. The SALiCCS research program is a large cross-national, registry-based and population-based cohort study of five-year survivors of childhood cancer from Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
The research program is an extension of the collaborative Nordic research program Adult Life after Childhood Cancer in Scandinavia (ALiCCS) study. The SALiCCS program combines knowledge from the initial ALiCCS research program regarding somatic disease burden, and adds information on psychiatric disease burden, socioeconomic circumstances and family factors. For more information on the collaborative ALiCCS research program, please visit: www.aliccs.org
The study cohort consists of all five-year survivors of childhood cancer diagnosed under the age of 20 years with a childhood cancer in Denmark, Sweden and Finland since start of cancer registration through 2008/2009. Up to 20,000 five-year survivors as well as five times as many population comparisons will be followed. In addition to the population comparisons, siblings of the cancer survivors are used as a second comparison group.
None of the Nordic countries on their own has a sufficiently large population to conduct detailed studies on socioeconomic circumstances in childhood cancer survivors with adequate power. However, when combining data from several Nordic countries, an optimal setting can be created to address important research questions in this field and allow risk stratified analyses.
Data linkage between a wide range of population-based health and administrative registries are enabled using the unique personal identification numbers (PIN numbers) of all residents in Denmark, Sweden and Finland. This enables investigation of a comprehensive range of socioeconomic conditions and family circumstances in childhood cancer survivors, while accounting for the somatic and psychiatric disease burden. The Nordic countries have largely standardized diagnostic and treatment procedures for childhood cancers, interaction and collaboration between pediatric oncologists, as well as free and uniform health care coverage and access to health care services. Furthermore, the Nordic countries have similar welfare systems in general, which makes it reasonable to combine data on childhood cancer survivors across the Nordic countries.