MELIORA: transforming breast cancer risk reduction through innovative strategies
Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women, making it the leading cause of global cancer incidence. In 2020, it amounted to 11.7% of cancer diagnoses in women worldwide. By 2040, the number of newly diagnosed breast cancer is projected to grow by over 40%.
MELIORA, an EU-funded initiative, is dedicated to transforming breast cancer risk reduction through innovative strategies. Focused on Multimodal Engagement and sustainable Lifestyle Interventions optimised by Artificial Intelligence, MELIORA aims to bring about effective and cost-efficient behavioural changes to significantly reduce the risk of breast cancer.
In line with the nutritional guidelines, MELIORA's vision is to encourage adherence to healthier sustainable lifestyles by addressing barriers such as lack of awareness, skills (such as digital and health literacy) and socio-demographic factors.
Disparities among women manifest across various breast cancer metrics, including incidence, treatment, and outcomes such as feasibility, sustainability and appropriateness of the intervention. MELIORA acknowledges the challenge posed by these differences, particularly by those affecting women in rural areas, those with lower education and income levels, and those facing social stigmatisation. Indeed, the project aims to promote prevention strategies among the most vulnerable populations, increasing our knowledge and understanding to eliminate inequalities and support health equity through targeted interventions.
MELIORA will promote sustainable behavioural change in women towards reducing breast cancer risk by developing and implementing a novel intervention addressing five barriers:
- Targeting - within the MELIORA intervention embodies a shift from conventional health campaigns that broadly disseminate information to a more nuanced approach that actively engages individuals at risk of breast cancer across various social groups. This shift from passive communication strategies acknowledges the diverse motivations, awareness levels, and socio-economic backgrounds of the target audience.
- Translation - Meliora will promote a meaningful pool of information, compatible with social norms and easy to understand and follow, depending on each population subgroup's social and cultural characteristics.
- Context-sensitive guidance - MELIORA will advise behavioural change within the urban, social, cultural and work-life context of the individual.
- Monitoring - MELIORA will support a major awareness of the level of adherence to guidelines, as well as possible deviations from set behavioural goals, to enable timely corrective measures. Supportive local policies - health policies should be adapted to support behavioural change within the local context, at the municipality or even neighbourhood level.
MELIORA will develop specifically tailored studies spanning six piloting centres, encompassing both urban and rural areas and engaging 2080 participants from three different groups: healthy women at risk of breast cancer and their families, breast cancer patients, and breast cancer survivors in four European countries: Greece, Lithuania, Spain, and Sweden. MELIORA studies will accompany patients and survivors throughout the cancer treatment fostering the improvement of behavioural lifestyles.
EUFIC Outputs
EUFIC will be responsible for developing the tools to plan for the impact evaluation of the MELIORA Virtual Coach Intervention, as well as for creating content which will be used during the interventions as well as the communication campaigns which will be part of the interventions targeting the studies participants. EUFIC will also support MELIORA’s communication and dissemination activities through its broad network.
Contacts:
- Nina McGrath, Content Production – Area Lead (nina.mcgrath@eufic.org)
- Katerina Palascha, Consumer Research - Senior Manager (katerina.palascha@eufic.org)
- Laura Bosman, Content Production – Junior Manager (laura.bosman@eufic.org)
Social media:
- LinkedIn: MELIORA EU Horizon Project
- X (Twitter): @Meliora_EU / #MELIORA
- YouTube: MelioraEUHorizonProject