Over the past months, the project team has made significant progress in advancing the PIECES Study, which evaluates the performance of the Primary Cancer Prevention Implementation Toolkit (PCP-IT) — the cornerstone of the project.
The PCP-IT is an online, modular toolkit designed to support implementers in selecting, adapting, and planning primary cancer prevention programmes tailored to their specific settings and population needs. Implementation teams across Spain, the Netherlands, Albania, the United Kingdom, Italy, Ukraine, Germany, and Ireland are currently applying the toolkit in diverse real-world contexts.
Among participating countries, the Ukrainian Team has demonstrated particularly strong progress. The team has successfully guided three local implementation teams (PCP-IT implementers) through all six modules of the toolkit — reaching an important milestone in the study.
Working across secondary schools and primary care centres, the Ukrainian implementers are focusing on two key cancer risk factors, and their implementation plan is based on evidence‑based programmes provided by the Toolkit Repository.
- Tobacco prevention among students, through the SHOUT and Not-On-Tobacco prevention programmes.
- HPV infection prevention, supported by the HPV Vaccination – Caring for the Future initiative, involving both students and primary care physicians.
Positive Takeaways from the Ukrainian Experience
The Ukrainian teams highlighted several aspects of the PCP-IT that have been particularly valuable in their implementation journey:
- The structured brainstorming sessions supported effective adaptation of selected programmes to local contexts.
- The clear modular design helped optimise workflow and enabled a structured, project-management approach to implementation.
- The Stakeholder Mapping and Engagement module proved especially useful in streamlining planning processes and strengthening collaboration with key actors.
The steady progress of the Ukrainian teams is already providing valuable lessons for the PIECES Study. Their experience supports cross-country learning and helps demonstrate how the PCP-IT can be effectively applied across diverse European settings.