prof. dr. Mireille Broeders

About Mireille Broeders

Mireille Broeders first got involved with cancer screening during her PhD project (Radboud University, 2004) where she evaluated the impact of the Nijmegen breast screening program, established already in the mid-70s of the last era. Over the past decade, she has developed a research line to identify the added value of introducing personalized risk-based approaches in the current age-based cancer screening programs, with a focus on breast cancer screening.

As Professor of Personalized Cancer Screening, a key question to address is whether personalized screening strategies, tailored to a person’s individual risk of cancer, are able to improve the balance of benefits and harms related to screening, both for persons at lower and higher than average risk of the cancer. To answer this question, prof. Broeders initiated the nation-wide PRISMA study and created a unique screening cohort where all information to assess a woman’s individual risk for breast cancer has been collected prospectively from 50,000 women. Through her position at the Dutch Expert Centre for Screening (LRCB), prof. Broeders further performs research to improve the quality of breast cancer screening. With her team and collaborators, she explores the possibilities of introducing technological developments, particularly AI algorithms. In the near future, prof. Broeders aims to apply insights gained in breast cancer screening to other established and potential new cancer screening programs.

Additional Functions

• Scientific Advisor at the Dutch Expert Centre for Screening
• Member of the Dutch Evaluation Team for Breast Cancer Screening
• Member of Guidelines Development Group, European Commission Initiative on Breast Cancer
• Chair of the Steering Committee of the International Cancer Screening Network