Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Position: Associate Professor
ORCID: 0000-0003-1063-5352
yen.tan@meduniwien.ac.at
Keywords
Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Syndrome; Molecular Epidemiology
Research group(s)
- BRCA and Hereditary Cancers Group
Head: Yen Y. Tan
Members:
Research interests
- Hereditary breast and ovarian cancers
- Translational cancer epidemiology
- Variant interpretation and risk stratification in BRCA1/2 (and associated genes) carriers
- Psychosocial and long-term health outcomes, including survival and clinical endpoints
Techniques, methods & infrastructure
Epidemiological and statistical modelling: application of time-to-event analysis, risk prediction models, interaction analysis to identify genetic and lifestyle modifiers of cancer risk and outcomes.
Variant interpretation frameworks: harmonization of classification and reporting methods based on ACMG and ENIGMA criteria; contributions to international reclassification efforts using real-world data.
Psychosocial research tools: validation and implemetation of standardized instruments (e.g. German Cancer Worry Scale) to assess psychological impact, screening decisions, and quality of life following genetic counseling and testing.
Collaborative infrastructure: coordination of local institutional registry for hereditary breast and ovarian cancers, as well as active leadership in international research networks (e.g. IBCCS, CIMBA), with a focus on national and international data harmonization, and interoperable data frameworks to support investigator-driven research.
Grants
- HER-CARE: Hereditary and early onset breast cancer (2024)
Source of Funding: EU, MSCA-Doctoral Network
Principal Investigator - ATHENA: Austrian hereditary breast and ovarian cancer registry (2023)
Source of Funding: Pfizer, Research Grant
Principal Investigator - IBCCS: The international BRCA1/2 carrier cohort study - prospective cohort analyses (2023)
Source of Funding: Basser Center for BRCA, Basser External Grant Program
Principal Investigator - BRCA-Brain: Identification and molecular analyses of brain metastasis in breast cancer patients (2022)
Source of Funding: Medical University of Vienna, CCC Initiative Krebsforschung Research Grant
Principal Investigator - PREDICTOME: Precision medicine for breast cancer - multi-omics towards predicting complete remission and avoiding surgery (2021)
Source of Funding: WWTF (Vienna Science and Technology Fund), Life Sciences Call 2020 - Precision Medicine
Principal Investigator - BRCA-P: Prospectively randomized place-controlled phase 3 study to determine the effect of denosumab on breast cancer prevention in BRCA1 mutation carriers (2019)
Source of Funding: U.S. Department of Defense, Breast Cancer Research Program Breakthrough Award - Funding Level 4
Coordinator of the collaborative project
Selected publications
- Reichl et al. Cancer Spectrum, Family History of Cancer and Overall Survival in Men with Germline BRCA1 or BRCA2 Mutations. Journal of Personalized Medicine. 2021; 11(9):917. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm11090917.
- Silvestri et al. Characterization of the Cancer Spectrum in Men With Germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 Pathogenic Variants: Results From the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2 (CIMBA) [published correction appears in JAMA Oncol. 2020 Nov 1;6(11):1815]. JAMA Oncol. 2020;6(8):1218-1230. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2020.2134.
- Kuchenbaecker et al. Risks of Breast, Ovarian, and Contralateral Breast Cancer for BRCA1 and BRCA2 Mutation Carriers. JAMA. 2017;317(23):2402–2416. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.7112.
- Buchanan et al. Tumor Mismatch Repair Immunohistochemistry and DNA MLH1 Methylation Testing of Patients With Endometrial Cancer Diagnosed at Age Younger Than 60 Years Optimizes Triage for Population-Level Germline Mismatch Repair Gene Mutation Testing. J Clin Oncol. 2014;32(2):90-100. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2013.51.2129.
- Tan et al. Improving identification of lynch syndrome patients: A comparison of research data with clinical records. International Journal of Cancer, 132(12), pp.2876–2883. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ijc.27978.