OnCo
ideasIdea

Open-source models that translate stage shift into lives saved, for every cancer

Whether finding cancer earlier saves lives depends on the cancer. Public models, one per cancer, would let trials and payers predict the mortality benefit from a stage shift honestly.

CISNET models exist for a few cancers and are not fully open. Propose an open, peer-reviewed microsimulation library covering the 20 commonest cancers, calibrated to registry survival by stage and to the sojourn-time literature, with pre-registration of predicted mortality effects for each MCED trial before readout.

Hypothesis
Pre-registered model predictions fall within the 95% confidence interval of observed mortality effects in at least 70% of subsequent screening trial readouts.
Rationale
Prediction before readout is the only way to test the models and to stop post-hoc rationalisation of stage-shift results.
What would test it
Fund the library; register predictions for NHS-Galleri and the NCI Vanguard study before their readouts.
Maturity
speculative
Who has to act
research
Cost to try
Small (under $1M)
Years to first evidence
3
Bottlenecks it attacks

Connected

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