Epidemiology, Outcomes, Economics & Management in Oncology Group
GEREGO research activity encompasses research at population level (RORENO and RON) and hospital level and in several areas of knowledge, meeting the level of challenges that health systems face globally and assuming that the management of health care health should have a strong component of clinical results (Value-Based Health Care). Thus, the group has contributed to increase the knowledge about the epidemiology of cancer, including geographic distribution of incidence, influence of socioeconomic determinants, assessment of the impact of the disease on the population by quantifying the global burden of disease. In addition, the group has produced knowledge in the areas of management, health outcomes and health care economics.
SCIENTIFIC COORDINATOR
Maria José Bento, MD, PhD
ORCID ID/ Ciência ID: 0000-0002-7690-9830 / 2A1A-1FCE-F83E
Senior Consultant in Public Health
Head of Department of Epidemiology
Coordinator of the Portuguese National Cancer Registry
Guest Associate Professor, ICBAS-School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto
Email: mjbento@ipoporto.min-saude.pt
TEAM
Junior Researchers
Luísa Lopes-Conceição, PhD
ORCID ID/ Ciência ID: 0000-0002-5064-9911 / B912-6BD5-D2C8
Junior Researcher (ONCOVALUE| ID: 101095245)
E-mail: luisa.conceicao@ipoporto.min-saude.pt
Other Researchers
Ana Filipa Gonçalves, PhD
ORCID ID/ Ciência ID: 0000-0003-4962-3260 / 4E1E-3BC4-6DA3
Data manager
Email: ana.goncalves@ipoporto.min-saude.pt
Ofélia Godinho, PhD
ORCID ID / Ciência ID: 0000-0003-3726-4264 / 431A-ACA6-1CBE
Statistician/Bioinformatician
E-mail: ofelia.godinho@ipoporto.min-saude.pt
Rita Silva, MD, PhD
ORCID ID/ Ciência ID: 0000-0002-1422-0974 / A41B-F09C-4DA2
Clinical Hematologist
E-mail: rita.silva@ipoporto.min-saude.pt
PhD Students with External Funding
Supervision
Mariana Pinto de Sousa, MSc (in collaboration with Experimental Pathology & Therapeutics Group – EPTG) (FCT UI/BD/154828/2023)
ORCID ID/ Ciência ID: 0000-0001-5232-2384 / 151A-5FC2-8034
E-mail: mariana.p.sousa@ipoporto.min-saude.pt
Co-Supervision
Débora Abreu, MSc (2023.05410.BDANA, in collaboration with FPCEUP)
ORCID ID/ Ciência ID: 0000-0002-0531-4047 / A113-1238-5DF2
E-mail: up201304244@edu.fpce.up.pt
PhD Students #IPO Porto Staff
Co-Supervision
Ana Catarina Alves Rodrigues, MD, MSc (in collaboration with Experimental Pathology & Therapeutics Group – EPTG)
ORCID ID / Ciência ID: 0009-0004-3034-4530 / 8018-881D-7BDE
E-mail: ana.a.rodrigues@ipoporto.min-saude.pt
Susana Pinto, PharmD (FCT Doutor AP 2024.13883.DAP, in collaboration with UCIBIO)
ORCID ID/ Ciência ID: 0009-0008-8364-6558 / DB10-0809-90D1
E-mail: susana.pinto@ipoporto.min-saude.pt
Research Assistants/Technicians
Ana Cláudia Ferreira, MSc (Gilead_ROAD-DLBCL)
ORCID ID / Ciência ID: 0000-0002-7434-3386 / 6712-D68D-F360
Data manager
E-mail: claudia.coelho.ferreira@ipoporto.min-saude.pt
Diana Alves, MSc (E-OEN-2025)
ORCID ID / Ciência ID: 0009-0005-7616-5172 / 4219-EC78-AC8C
Data manager
E-mail: diana.l.alves@ipoporto.min-saude.pt
Flávia Castro; MSc (E-OEN-2024)
ORCID ID / Ciência ID: 0000-0002-9462-2104 / DE12-0D6A-06DD
Data manager
E-mail: flavia.castro@ipoporto.min-saude.pt
Rui Pedro Pereira, MSc (E-OEN-2025)
ORCID ID / Ciência ID: 0009-0009-4191-9797 / 3218-FC13-315D
Data manager
E-mail: rui.r.pereira@ipoporto.min-saude.pt
Sílvia Torres, MSc (E-OEN-2024)
ORCID ID / Ciência ID: 0009-0002-8865-529X/ 981A-65C0-F41A
Data Manager
E-mail: silvia.torres@ipoporto.min-saude.pt
MSc Students
2026/2027
Supervision
Claúdia Ferreira Pinho, BSc, Master in Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Applied to Health – E2S-UTP
Other collaborators:
Álvaro José Silva, MD, MSc, Physician in Palliative Care
Ana Margarida Cabral, MD,MSc; Surgeon (Horta Hospital)
Ana Sofia Oliveira, BSc Management Technician
Cláudia Teixeira; MSc, Statiscian / Data analyst
Henriqueta Sampaio; BSc, Oncology Pharmacist
Joana Gomes, MSc, Oncology pharmacists
Joana Moreira, MSc, Statistician (IQVIA)
Mariana Cantante Ferreira, MSc, Data Manager
Marta Moreira, BSc, Technical Assistant
Marta Rangel, BSc, Management Technician
Pedro Leite-Silva, MSc,Statistician
Rita Calisto, MSc, Data analyst
Teresa Mota Garcia, MD MSc, Physician in Public Health
Virgínia Sousa, MSc, Management Technician
AIMS
The group intends to have a local and global impact on health care by incorporating a multidisciplinary perspective in the production of knowledge in the following areas:
– Cancer epidemiology, including cancer etiology and socioeconomic determinants;
– Clinical epidemiological research into predictive and prognostic factors of patient survival;
– Health care management, outcome research and health economics.
GEREGO research in these areas can be leveraged by strong integration with clinical practice.
In the future, the group aims to increase national and international partnerships in projects, support observational studies and publish and communicate.
PROJECTS WITH EXTERNAL FUNDING (click to more information)
PROJECTS WITH INTERNAL FUNDING (click to more information)
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (up to five):
Brito-Rocha T, Constâncio V, Leite-Silva P, Carvalho-Maia C, Sequeira JP, Salta S, Lobo J, Machado DI, Nunes SP, Silva-Santos R, Freitas R, Gonçalves Dias C, Vieira C, Soares M, Henrique R, Jerónimo C. Multi-cancer early detection via a DNA methylation multiplex ddPCR-based blood test. Int J Cancer. 2025 Sep 1;157(5):1006-1019. doi: 10.1002/ijc.35467. Epub 2025 May 2. PMID: 40317486.
Gonçalves E, Fontes F, Rodrigues JR, Calisto R, Bento MJ, Lunet N, Morais S. The contribution of second primary cancers to the mortality of patients with a first primary breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2024 Sep;207(2):323-330. doi: 10.1007/s10549-024-07361-3. Epub 2024 Jun 13. PMID: 38869665; PMCID: PMC11297125.
Ghione P, Palomba ML, Patel AR, Bobillo S, Deighton K, Jacobson CA, Nahas M, Hatswell AJ, Jung AS, Kanters S, Snider JT, Neelapu SS, Ribeiro MT, Brookhart MA, Ghesquieres H, Radford J, Gribben JG. Comparative effectiveness of ZUMA-5 (axi-cel) vs SCHOLAR-5 external control in relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma. Blood. 2022 Aug 25;140(8):851-860. doi: 10.1182/blood.2021014375. PMID: 35679476; PMCID: PMC9412012.
Cardoso R, Guo F, Heisser T, Hackl M, Ihle P, De Schutter H, Van Damme N, Valerianova Z, Atanasov T, Májek O, Mužík J, Nilbert MC, Tybjerg AJ, Innos K, Mägi M, Malila N, Bouvier AM, Bouvier V, Launoy G, Woronoff AS, Cariou M, Robaszkiewicz M, Delafosse P, Poncet F, Katalinic A, Walsh PM, Senore C, Rosso S, Vincerževskienė I, Lemmens VEPP, Elferink MAG, Johannesen TB, Kørner H, Pfeffer F, Bento MJ, Rodrigues J, Alves da Costa F, Miranda A, Zadnik V, Žagar T, Lopez de Munain Marques A, Marcos-Gragera R, Puigdemont M, Galceran J, Carulla M, Chirlaque MD, Ballesta M, Sundquist K, Sundquist J, Weber M, Jordan A, Herrmann C, Mousavi M, Ryzhov A, Hoffmeister M, Brenner H. Colorectal cancer incidence, mortality, and stage distribution in European countries in the colorectal cancer screening era: an international population-based study. Lancet Oncol. 2021 Jul;22(7):1002-1013. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(21)00199-6. Epub 2021 May 25. PMID: 34048685.
Libânio D, Rodrigues JR, Bento MJ, Ebigbo A, Messman H, Verhoeven RHA, Van Damme N, Bisschops R, Spaander MCW, Dinis-Ribeiro M. Gastric cancer incidence and mortality trends 2007-2016 in three European countries. Endoscopy. 2022 Jul;54(7):644-652. doi: 10.1055/a-1673-1118. Epub 2021 Dec 16. PMID: 34666399.
NATIONAL COLLABORATIONS:
Registo Oncológico Nacional de Todos os Tumores na População Residente em Portugal, em 2019
Institution: National Cancer Registry (Portugal)
Description: The publication of the National Cancer Registry (RON) aims to disseminate information regarding the incidence and mortality of cancer in Portugal in 2019. The data presented refer to all tumors in the population residing in Portugal at the time of diagnosis, excluding cases handled under cooperation protocols, for example, with Portuguese-speaking African Countries. The publication comprises incidence and mortality data, incidence distribution maps of the main types of tumor and the assessment of the quality of information, through the mortality/incidence ratio and comparison with the national incidence of 2010 and 2018.
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS:
E-OEN – European Oncology Evidence Network
Description: The Oncology Evidence Network is a research network of Europe’s larger cancer hospitals working with IQVIA to provide high quality, real world data reflecting the latest clinical practice. E-OEN is set up to simplify delivery of up-to-date real-world evidence.
Link: https://www.iqvia.com/solutions/real-world-evidence/evidence-networks/oncology-evidence-network
VENUSCANCER – Women’s cancers: do variations in patterns of care explain the world-wide inequalities in survival and avoidable premature deaths?
Description: The EU-funded VENUSCANCER project is seeking to understand the reasons behind starkly different patterns of survival and avoidable deaths in cancers affecting women around the world. This project will show that it is possible (a) to collect high-quality, complete clinical information at population level even in low- and middle-income countries; (b) to explain the striking inequalities in women’s cancer survival world-wide, and (c) to summarize these inequalities in a single number (avoidable deaths) as a powerful tool that motivates policymakers to reduce inequalities in survival.
Link: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/772345
PancreOS – Pancreatic cancer overall survival registry in Europe
Description: The PancreOS is aimed to be a European network of pancreatic cancer registries to improve the collection of a comprehensive set of prospective data from pancreatic cancer patients at any stage of the disease, so to fill the gap of the lack of organized data collection in pancreatic cancer and to promote a better understanding of the disease and the development of more efficacious diagnosis strategies and personalized treatments. Among the specific objectives: to implement a European network of pancreatic cancer registries to provide a comprehensive view of pancreatic cancer patient management in Europe; to identify and present the inequalities in reporting pancreatic cancer data; to promote a better understanding of the disease and the development of more effective diagnosis strategies and personalized treatments.
Link: https://pancreaticcancereurope.eu/project/pancreos-pancreatic-cancer-overall-survival-registry-in-europe-2021/
VOICE – Value based healthcare for Outcomes In breast and lung Cancer in Europe
Description: The project is based on the Value-Based Healthcare (VBHC) model that proposes an innovative strategic framework aimed at guiding healthcare services in their re-organization to provide patients with the highest value healthcare at the best cost, specifically in the case of breast and lung cancer.
Link: https://www.kronikgune.org/en/european-community-voice/
https://www.kronikgune.org/en/the-voice-community-nominated-for-the-value-based-dragons-grant-endorsement-2021-awards/
DigiCore – DiGital Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research
Description: DIGICORE is a pan-European research network built to accelerate the Implementation of precision oncology in Europe. DIGICORE promotes and equips cancer centers in their use of routine electronic health records (EHR) and molecular diagnostic information (MDX) for trial automation, real world outcomes research, digital diagnostics and care quality management. The goal is to shape a digital research infrastructure based on digital interoperability between its Members. Network membership supports them to improve data quality and completeness, develop new data sources and tools, share digital best practices and promote novel, digitally enabled research methods.
Link: https://digicore-cancer.eu/
OECI Working Group on Cancer Economics and Benchmarking
Description: The primary objectives of the WG is to demonstrate remits of cost-benefits analyses in oncology and to establish standards in budget impact analysis for OECI members.
Link: https://www.oeci.eu/WG.aspx?id=12&group=1
IPAAC – Innovative Partnership for Action Against Cancer WP7 PILOT 2
Institution: Italian National Institute of Health, Italy
Description: The IPAAC Joint Action brings together 24 Associated Partners (with Affiliated Entities, 44 partners) across Europe whose main objectives are to build upon deliverables of the CANCON Joint Action and to implement innovative approaches to cancer control. A Roadmap on Implementation and Sustainability of Cancer Control Actions will be the main deliverable of this Joint Action.
Link: https://www.ipaac.eu/
CONCORD – Global surveillance of cancer survival
Institution: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK
Description: CONCORD is the program for world-wide surveillance of trends in cancer survival, led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The CONCORD program is endorsed by 40 national and international agencies, including WHO EURO, the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) and the World Bank.
Link: https://csg.lshtm.ac.uk/research/themes/concord-programme
WASABY – WAter & Soil contamination and Awareness on Breast cancer risk in Young women
Institution: Istituto Nazionale Tumori di Milano, Italy
Description: The proposal involves the design of a model able to identify areas with higher cancer rates, so to study whether pollutant contamination may be a cause for increased cancer risk. Hence it aims to improve the health of EU citizens and reduce health inequalities.
Link: http://www.wasabysite.it/
EUROCARE – Survival of cancer patients in Europe
Institution: Istituto Nazionale Tumori di Milano and of the Italian National Institute of Health, Italy
Description: EUROCARE is the widest collaborative research project on cancer survival in Europe. The project started in 1989 under the initiative of two research institutes, Istituto Nazionale Tumori (Milan, Italy) www.istitutotumori.mi.it and Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Rome, Italy) www.iss.it, with the participation of many population-based Cancer Registries throughout Europe. Aims of the study are: to provide an updated description of cancer survival time trends and differences across European countries, to measure cancer prevalence, and to study patterns of care of cancer patients.
Link: http://www.eurocare.it/
RARECAREnet – Surveillance of Rare Cancers in Europe
Institution: Istituto Nazionale Tumori di Milano, Italy
Description: Building on the experience of the previous project RARECARE and, in collaboration with RCE and many other RARECARENet aims at building an information network to provide comprehensive information on rare cancers to the community at large (oncologists, general practitioners, researchers, health authorities, patients and their families).
Link: https://www.rarecarenet.eu/
IICC – International Incidence of Childhood Cancer
Institution: International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the International Association of Cancer Registries (IACR), France
Description: The objective is to disseminate the available data on the incidence of cancer in children around the world. This will be achieved through the publication of a monograph, the third volume in the IICC series (IICC-3). Data from 440 registries in five continents have been collected, validated, analyzed, and evaluated.
Link: https://iicc.iarc.fr/
EURECCA – EUropean REgistry of Cancer CAre or EURopEan CanCer Audit
Institution: ESSO (European Society of Surgical Oncology), Belgium
Description: EURECCA is an international multidisciplinary platform of clinicians and epidemiologists aiming to improve the quality of cancer care by data registration, feedback, forming plans for improvement and sharing knowledge of performance and science. EURECCA’s goal is to enlarge the European platform and infrastructure to cooperate with national registries or audit structures, expand the coverage of cancer patient outcome data that is captured and audit the quality of multidisciplinary cancer care.
Link: https://www.essoweb.org/projects/eurecca-cancer-care/
EurocanPlatform for Translational Cancer Research
Institution: Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Description: EurocanPlatform will work towards the goal of decreasing cancer mortality by dealing with three main areas of strategic research: prevention, early detection and improved treatments. It will build the necessary resources and know-how for the entire research continuum: basic research, early and late translational research, clinical research, epidemiological research, implementation in care and population based outcome research.
Link: https://eurocanplatform.eu/category/industries/
UNCAN.eu, a European initiative to UNderstand CANcer
Instituição: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, France
Description: The blueprint for UNCAN.eu will propose to set up a European Federated Cancer Research data hub and to generate a series of use cases, addressing major challenges in cancer research. These ambitious and innovative, but realistic and focussed, use cases will be cross-border and trans-disciplinary research programmes built in a problem-solving manner. Results of these use cases will feed the Cancer Research data hub with findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-usable (FAIR) cancer research data. These research data will be combined with patient health and any other relevant data (e.g., from longitudinal cohorts, geographical observations, consumer and lifestyle data) at an unprecedented scale. UNCAN.eu that will bring all relevant players and information together, based on existing efforts in Europe and beyond.
Link: https://uncan.eu/
GRELL – Group for Cancer Epidemiology and Registration in Latin Language Countries
Link: https://www.grell-network.org/
CRICCS – Cancer Risk in Childhood Cancer Survivors: understanding the causes to target prevention
Link: https://criccs.iarc.who.int /