Brussels, April 25th, 2024: Nearly half of all cancers may indeed be preventable, as health authorities routinely – and
correctly – proclaim, but prevention depends largely on the behaviour of citizens. And so far, it has been proved
difficult to exert much beneficial influence in Europe to turn this huge opportunity into reality.
That is why a new path is under development using a novel combination of tools and technologies to actively promote
the prevention of primary cancer. It aims to trigger a shift towards behaviours that reduce the risk of developing cancer.
On 23 April a new highly specialised committee was inaugurated comprising public health professionals from
recognised centres of expertise in 10 countries across the EU, to take greater account of how addressing psychosocial
and lifestyle risk factors can influence behavioural change. The European Alliance for Personalised Medicine is charged
with coordinating this committee.
This is part of a project, iBeChange, which started in November 2023, which is conceived to overcome the observed
deficiencies in previous research/practice. Until now, attempts to win great attention to the avoidable risks of cancer
have neglected the importance of personalized interventions, and ignored the disruptive impact of emotions such as
anxiety – factors that themselves increase the risk of cancer.
This advisory committee is central to this five-year public health project to make a real impact on citizens, with
significant positive implications for public health systems. It is a timely recognition that for prevention to really mean
what it says, public healthcare systems must reach citizens as well as patients – and before citizens become patients.
Key figures in the project are Gabriella Pravettoni, professor of cognitive psychology and director of the psycho-
oncology division at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Milan, Chiara Marzorati and Marianna Agnese Masiero
from IEO also.
iBeChange is creating a user-focused management system designed to empower people to achieve healthy and
sustainable behaviours and emotions
They aim to foster the quality of individuals’ live quality through improving physical health and psychological well-
being. But the project will also reducing the societal cost of poor health and make it possible to formulate health
policies that integrate digital health interventions into the delivery and reimbursement of healthcare services.
Without the steps envisaged in this project, many preventable cancers will not be prevented, leaving citizens to
become – unnecessarily – patients, and perhaps casualties. That is why the time has come for a more thoughtful
approach – iBeChange.