Descrizione del progetto
Superare gli ostacoli allo screening del cancro da papillomavirus umano
L’implementazione globale dello screening del cancro può essere ostacolata dalle differenze tra paesi a livello di cultura e risorse disponibili. Il progetto CHILI, finanziato dall’UE, affronterà questa sfida determinando l’accettabilità, la fattibilità e l’economicità dello strumento di screening per il cancro cervicale ELEVATE per le donne nei paesi a basso reddito. Questo dispositivo portatile alimentato a batteria comprende un test del DNA del papillomavirus umano e un sensore di rilevamento dei biomarcatori proteomici. Gli scienziati sociali studieranno le attuali pratiche di screening ed elaboreranno una strategia su misura incorporata nell’attuale sistema sanitario, mentre gli ingegneri convalideranno il dispositivo di autotest e lo adatteranno per la produzione su larga scala a un costo accessibile. Gli specialisti della salute pubblica e gli esperti economici del settore sanitario valuteranno quindi l’implementazione dello strumento di screening per determinarne l’idoneità e l’efficacia in termini di costi.
Obiettivo
Cervical cancer is the 4th most common cancer in women worldwide, with up to 85% of the burden in resource-restricted countries. Early detection of precancer has shown to be successful in reducing cancer incidence and mortality. However, a global implementation of this approach is hampered by culture and resource differences between countries.
We propose to evaluate the acceptability, feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the ELEVATE cervical cancer screening tool in low-income countries (LIC). The tool is a portable, battery-powered device compatible with self-sampling and comprises an HPV DNA test as well as a proteomic biomarkers detection sensor and will be offered to women in Cambodia, Mozambique and Uganda.
This multidisciplinary consortium, led by Ghent University (Belgium), brings together social scientists, health economists and biosensor experts from Europe and the selected countries with industry partners. The approach is three-fold: social science investigations will be conducted to understand current screening practices and to define a tailored strategy, including the ELEVATE tool, embedded in the current health system. Secondly, engineers will validate the self-testing device and will adapt it to reduce the unit price and to enable large-scale manufacturing at an affordable cost. Finally, public health specialists and health economists will evaluate the implementation of the new screening tool to assess its appropriateness and cost-effectiveness. For the latter objective, an intervention will be implemented: in the first arm, the different steps of current cervical cancer screening practices will be optimized (awareness, pre-and post-counseling and referral). In the second arm, the same strategy will be applied in combination with the new point-of-care screening device. Integral part of CHILI is to maximize the use of the new screening tool in low-resource settings in collaboration with national stakeholders and health care providers.
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Vedi altri progetti per questo bandoBando secondario
H2020-SC1-2020-Single-Stage-RTD
Meccanismo di finanziamento
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinatore
9000 Gent
Belgio