About

The Karma research group at Karolinska Institutet is creating the world’s best-characterised breast cancer cohort. The aim is to reduce the mortality and incidence in breast cancer through translational research focusing on breast cancer prevention.

The number of women diagnosed with breast cancer is increasing globally. In Sweden, one woman in eight will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime, corresponding to nearly one woman being diagnosed with breast cancer every hour. Nonetheless, there is little research done and few clinical means available for predicting risk and preventing development of the disease.

Karma stands for KARolinska MAmmography Project for Risk Prediction of Breast Cancer.

THE KARMA STUDY AIM TO REDUCE THE INCIDENCE AND MORTALITY OF BREAST CANCER BY FOCUSING ON INDIVIDUALISED PREVENTION AND SCREENING.

The primary objectives of Karma are to:

  1. Establish a comprehensive database of information linked to biological specimens, which will become a resource for scientific studies over the coming decades
  2. Identify the individual risk of breast cancer taking established risk factors such as mammographic density, genetic determinants and lifestyle, in to consideration
  3. Discover new markers for risk and prognosis of breast cancer, e.g. plasma proteins/hormones and mammographic features such as microcalcifications/masses
  4. Identify means to reduce the incidence of breast cancer
  5. Improve current breast cancer screening routines, taking risk and possibility to detect a cancer in to consideration

More detailed descriptions about on-going projects can be found here.

The Karma Concept