TOwards imProved screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer In All of Europe

Dates: September 2015 – August 2020
Funder: European Commission
LSHTM staff involved: Martin McKee, Keti Glonti

The EU-TOPIA study is carried out in partnership with: Erasmus University, Netherlands; Cancer Society of Finland; City of Health and Science University Hospital of Turin, Italy; The Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Slovenia; Health Development Institute, Estonia; and Syreon Clinical Research, Hungary.

The EU-TOPIA team

The study will systematically evaluate and quantify the harms and benefits of current programmes for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer in all European countries, and identify ways to improve health outcomes and equity. Using quality indicators, outcomes and cost-effectiveness of existing cancer screening programmes in 2015 will be estimated. Models of the natural history of the cancers will be constructed using country-specific data, and barriers to implementation identified. Road maps for change with capacity for self-evaluation of screening will be built using web-based tools. The project aims to reduce inequity, number of cancer deaths and over-diagnosed cases, and increase life years gained and improve cost-effectiveness by 2025.

Creating the building blocks for better treatment and control of non-communicable diseases among poor and vulnerable households in Malaysia and the Philippines

Dates: September 2016 – August 2020
Funder: Wellcome Trust/Newton Fund-MRC Humanities & Social Science Collaborative Award
CGCC staff: Martin McKee, Dina Balabanova, Benjamin Palafox

The project will provide the knowledge needed to overcome health system barriers to optimal management of hypertension in Malaysia and the Philippines, which is now a major cause of disability and premature death despite being easily detected and treated. Yet although evidence on its clinical management is universal, to overcome the health systems barriers, especially those faced by the poor, local knowledge is needed. This, in turn, requires local capacity in health systems research and knowledge transfer. The project will use a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to understand barriers to hypertension control faced by low-income households. We will use innovative open-source mobile technology to capture participant-generated content (audio, text, video, etc.) on their lived experience in real-time, coupled with panel surveys of households, and assessment of formal and informal providers.

Collaborators

University of the Philippines – Manila, College of Medicine and UCSI University (Malaysia)

Dates: 2017-2021
Funder: European Commission
CGCC staff: Bayard Roberts

The Centre for Global Chronic Conditions is a partner in a new five-year European Commission funded research project called STRENGTHS led by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam which seeks to strengthen mental health care for Syrian refugees in Europe and in countries neighbouring Syria.

The current refugee crisis across Europe and the Middle East effects refugees’ psychological well-being, as they face extreme stressors in their flight from their home country and lives in new countries, but also has large effects on the healthcare systems of countries housing refugees. In response to this crisis, STRENGTHS aims to provide a framework for scaling-up the delivery and uptake of effective community-based mental health strategies to address the specific needs of refugees within and outside Europe’s borders. STRENGTHS will outline necessary steps to integrate evidence-based low-intensity psychological interventions (PM+) with refugees for common mental disorders into health systems in Syria’s surrounding countries (Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan) and Europe (Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden).

The programme of work includes conducting randomised control trials of PM+, and associated implementation science and economic evaluation of scaling-up PM+. The consortium is a unique partnership between academics, NGOs, international agencies and local partners with the responsibility to provide and scale-up evidence-based mental health and psychosocial support interventions for refugees.  Bayard Roberts (CGCC) is leading a work package examining the responsiveness of health systems to the scaling-up of PM+ across the study countries. Research methods include rapid appraisals of health systems, cross-sectional population-level surveys, and in-depth qualitative research.

For further information contact: Bayard Roberts.

Lead: Laura Woods

The purpose of this research is to provide robust, quantitative evidence of the effectiveness of mammographic screening for reducing inequalities in survival between women of different socio-economic groups and of different ethnicities.

Lead: Laura Woods

This research examines the determinants of low survival amongst women with breast cancer in England in comparison to Australia, and in poorer women in comparison to richer women in the United Kingdom.

Lead: Alan Dangour

The LCIRAH is a centre dedicated to integrating research in agriculture and health, seeking answers to the question “How do we achieve sustainable food and agriculture systems which promote health and well being for all people?”

Lead: Alan Dangour

The OPEN study aims to assess whether increased dietary intake of crystalline vitamin B12 will improve nerve function and cognitive function in older people with defined low vitamin B12 status.

Lead: Tim Clayton

The REPAIR trial aims (Renal protection against ischaemia reperfusion injury in transplantation) to determine if remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC) improves renal function after transplantation. The ERICCA trial (Effect of Remote Ischaemic preConditioning on clinical outcomes in patients undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Graft surgery) aims to determine whether remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIC) improves clinical outcomes after cardiac surgery.

Lead: Sanjay Kinra
Lead: Catherine Falconer

As part of the PROMISE Programme, two projects based at LSHTM aim to:

1. Scope the impact of the National Child Measurement Programme feedback on the child obesity pathway; and 
2. Develop a new electronic tool to improve childhood obesity management in primary care.

Lead: Hannah Kuper

This study was undertaken in Hyderabad, India, to assess the impact of early life nutritional supplementation and later life rural-urban migration on diabetes and other chronic diseases.