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Early detection of cervical cancer in hard-to-reach populations of women through portable and point-of-care HPV testing

Project description

DEENESFRITPL

Strategies for early screening and prevention of cervical cancer in hard-to-reach populations

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women, and the hard-to-reach populations in many countries are at a higher risk of developing the disease. Preventive screening programmes and vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) result in reduced cancer incidence and mortality. The EU-funded ELEVATE project is conducting studies to identify hard-to-reach women in Belgium, Brazil, Ecuador and Portugal in order to remove barriers to their early screening and design strategies to make it more accessible. A multidisciplinary team of experts from Europe and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States are carrying out the fundamental and technological research to develop an efficient and marketable test for the detection of high-risk HPV infections in those populations. The goal is to design a portable test compatible with self-sampling, generating rapid and easy-to-understand results.

Objective

Cervical cancer is the 4th most common cancer in women worlThe ELEVATE project sets a multidisciplinary team comprising manufactures and experts from Europe and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, to improve the global adequacy and coverage of cervical cancer screening, particularly to specific populations of women that by not being regularly screened (hard-to-reach populations) are at higher-risk to develop cervical cancer. Although Cervical cancer is still the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide, with up to 85% of the burden occurring in developing countries, preventive vaccination against human papillomavirus and early detection of precancer in screening programs has shown to be successful in reducing cancer incidence and mortality.1–3 However, different challenges hamper a global implementation of such programs and are in the base of women’s non-attendance to screening. This highlights the lack of reflection of ethnic, cultural and resource differences from different populations in current cervical cancer screening. In ELEVATE it is proposed to conduct social science investigations to identify hard-to-reach women in Belgium, Brazil, Ecuador and Portugal, to address their barriers to screening and to design strategies to make primary screening more accessible to them, and therefore, contribute to reduce the global burden of cervical cancer. This will be complemented with fundamental and technological research to develop an efficient and marketable test for the combined genomic and proteomic detection of high-risk HPV infections in those populations. The test will be made portable, low-cost, compatible with self-sampling, point-of-care and generate rapid and easy-to-understand results, without relying on electrical outlets or trained health personnel. Integrant part of the proposal is also to infer and disseminate the societal, economic implications of the developed strategies using a hard-to-reach community-based participatory research.

Fields of science

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

H2020-SC1-BHC-2018-2020

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Sub call

H2020-SC1-2018-Single-Stage-RTD

Funding Scheme

RIA - Research and Innovation action

Coordinator

UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Net EU contribution
€ 1 518 835,00
Address
Sint pietersnieuwstraat 25
9000 Gent
Belgium

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Region
Vlaams Gewest Prov. Oost-Vlaanderen Arr. Gent
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Other funding
€ 0,00

Participants (8)

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EC signature date 10 December 2018
Last update: 29 July 2022

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/825747

European Union, 2023