Objectives

The overall goal of EU-TOPIA-EAST is to implement effective screening programmes for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer in three exemplary MICs in Eastern Europe (Georgia, Romania and Montenegro) and to build capacity for screening implementation in other Eastern European and Mediterranean countries, in order to reduce the cancer burden in these countries and to achieve equity in cancer care.

More specifically, our objectives are to:

1. Extend, update and refine the innovative road maps, which were initiated in the EU-TOPIA project by Georgia, Montenegro and Romania, into concrete action plans with steps and timeliness to successfully implementing these (WP 2, 3)
2. Follow the steps in the road maps and action plans and implement in some regions the identified feasible interventions in the existing screening programmes for breast cancer in Georgia, for cervical cancer in Romania colorectal cancer in Montenegro (WP 5, 6 and 7)
3. Monitor the impact of the implemented interventions on important short-term screening performance indicators, such as participation and detection rates (WP 2, 4)
4. Estimate required resources, health outcomes (benefits and harms, quality of life) and cost-effectiveness of scaling up the interventions to a national level and to other MIC in Eastern-Europe and the Mediterranean using innovative dedicated microsimulation models (WP 2)
5. Disseminate good implementation practices from participating countries to other MIC in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean by organising interactive workshops and round table discussions with national, regional and local policymakers and other stakeholders (WP 8)

The knowledge and network obtained in the first EU-TOPIA project will provide the perfect base to start EU-TOPIA-EAST and the consortium, with new Eastern European partners added, will have the expertise and experience to perform the project.