News

05/2025 Opening Workshop at CCCN Pilot INT Pascale/ROC

Our sixth opening workshop on May 22 was dedicated to visit the IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori Fondazione G. Pascale/ Rete Oncologica Campania (INT Pascale/ROC) in Naples, Italy.

INT Pascale is one of Italy’s leading Comprehensive Cancer Centres and is officially certified by the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI) since 2021. The regional oncology network (ROC) was established in the Campania Region in 2016 and brings together all regional centres involved in cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation, serving a population of 6 million residents with the goal to improve the quality, coordination, and accessibility of cancer care across the region.

During our opening workshop WP9 team had the opportunity to gain insights into the set up of the ROC, the interdisciplinary care approach and overall infrastructure of the INT Pascale. Together we discussed the Set of Standards for high quality Prostate Care including key performance indicators to measure the quality of care. Joining a MDT meeting to see the interdisciplinary case discussions first hand was a great opportunity for the WP9 delegation.

We extend our sincere thanks to our colleagues at INT Pascale/ROC for the engaging and productive exchange! We look forward to continuing the collaboration as we work together to improve the access to high-quality care for cancer patients throughout Europe.

05/2025 Opening Workshops at Polish CCCN Pilots

Three Days, Three Cities, Three Workshops – One Shared Goal: High-Quality Cancer Care in Europe

As part of the EUnetCCC project, a series of opening workshops took place in mid-May in Poland, engaging with three pilot Comprehensive Cancer Care Networks (CCCNs) over three days. These workshops aimed to advance the development of structured, high-quality tumour-specific cancer care networks across Europe.

From May 12th to 14th, three CCCN pilot sites hosted the sessions, each presenting their unique implemented care structures. The primary goal was to support the structured establishment of certified CCCNs through interdisciplinary exchange and practical implementation strategies.

The series started in Warsaw at the Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Institute of Oncology (MSCI), focusing on Prostate Cancer. As a leading oncology institution, MSCI is working on developing standardized patient pathways and quality indicators to enhance care. The workshop also addressed collaboration with national and European urology experts.

The second workshop was held in Lublin at the Medical University of Lublin (MUL) and University Hospital, focusing on Gynaecological Cancer. The CCCN at MUL aims to improve care pathways for gynaecological tumours. Emphasis was placed on integrating European best practices into clinical workflows.

The final workshop took place in Kielce at the Holy Cross Oncology Centre (HCOC), concentrating on Colorectal Cancer. The discussions focused on high-quality care standards, optimizing patient pathways, and ensuring continuous quality improvement by recording and analysing quality indicators and thus making quality of care transparent, measurable and improvable.

The workshops addressed core aspects in the Set of Standards which are essential for establishing CCCNs, including setting up the care network, its governance and interdisciplinary and interprofessional collaboration within the CCCN.Practical implementation strategies were discussed, focusing on timelines, data documentation and country-specific equivalences. Site visits provided insights into clinical infrastructure, fostering understanding and professional exchange.

Once again the workshops demonstrated the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to advance cancer care in Europe. The exchange of knowledge and experiences within the project has been invaluable, and great appreciation is extended to all partners and participants for their dedication and active involvement!

04/2025 Opening Workshop at CCCN Pilot VUL SK / NCC

On April 15, the second opening workshop with a pilot Comprehensive Cancer Care Network (CCCN) took place at Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos / National Cancer Center (VUL SK / NCC) – a joint CCCN formed by the collaboration of the Hospital and the National Center.

The workshop provided a valuable opportunity to discuss the requirements and implementation steps for establishing a certified CCCN, with a specific focus on Colorectal Cancer care.

Participants also gained insights into VUL SK / NCC’s clinical infrastructure and interdisciplinary care models during a guided site visit.

As part of the EUnetCCC project, the German Cancer Society (DKG) and the Polish National Institute of Public Health National Institute of Hygiene–National Research Institute (NIZP PZH-PIB) are jointly coordinating Work Package 9. This work package is dedicated to supporting the structured implementation of CCCNs across Europe, with the goal of making high-quality cancer care accessible to patients as close to home as possible.

We thank our partners at VUL SK / NCC for the productive exchange and look forward to the next steps in our collaboration with all pilot CCCNs.

03/2025 Opening Workshop at CCCN Pilot IPO-Porto

On March 18, we launched the first in a series of workshops with pilot Comprehensive Cancer Care Networks (CCCNs), graciously hosted by our partners at the Instituto Português de Oncologia do Porto (IPO-Porto). This inaugural workshop marked the start of our collaborative efforts within the EUnetCCC project. The workshop covered the main requirements for a certified CCCN, and also included an enlightening tour of IPO Porto’s facilities, showcasing their specialized approaches in the treatment of Colorectal and Lung Cancer.

German Cancer Society (DKG) is implementing the Work Package 9 together with the Polish National Institute of Public Health National Institute of Hygiene-National Research Institute (NIZP PZH-PIB). Our aim is to facilitate the implementation of CCCNs, supporting the overarching goal to ensure every patient across Europe receives the highest quality of cancer care close to home.

We are excited to continue this journey and eagerly anticipate further collaborations with our pilot CCCNs, that will advance cancer treatment and patient care.

02/2025 JA EUnetCCC Work Package 9 Kick-Off meeting

Work Package 9 Kick-Off meeting 24-25 February 2025, Berlin

We had the pleasure to host the Kick-Off meeting for Work Package 9 „Support the implementation of Comprehensive Cancer Care Networks (CCCNs) to ensure comprehensive, high-quality care” which is part of the EU-financed Joint Action EUnetCCC. Together with the Polish National Institute of Public Health National Institute of Hygiene-National Research Institute (NIZP PZH-PIB) we welcomed over 50 partners from 36 organizations at our DKG headquarters.

Over the next four years, we are planning to continue our work on the CCCN concept with the goal to give cancer patients, at all stages of their disease, access to a high-quality care that covers all components of the healthcare continuum from early detection and diagnosis to treatment and care, follow up and if necessary palliative care. Basis for this is the EBCP, especially Flagship No. 5 of the European Commission.

Together with our piloting CCCN partners we will further developed tools and instruments (i.e. Set of Standards, Quality Indicators & Patient Pathways) to implement high-quality care standards, build capacity and support their journey to set up certified CCCNs.

Thank you very much for joining us on the journey and for your input and discussions during our meeting!

We are very much looking forward to further collaborations with our pilot CCCNs, our EUnetCCC fellow WP-leads and our external partners/projects/initiatives!

01/2025 New audit documents

The auditing documents for 2025 including an updated Catalogue of Requirements and Data Sheet are now available for download on the website. In case of any questions please do not hesitate to contact us under info@ecc-cert.org

12/2024 Start of new Joint Action JANE2

Joint Action on Networks of Expertise on Cancer

In November 2024, the Joint Action on Networks of Expertise on Cancer (JANE-2), led by the Istituto Nazionale Tumori in Italy, was launched as a follow-up Joint Action, of the JANE Joint Action (2022 – 2024). Based on the Europeans Beating Cancer Plan, seven Networks of Expertise (NoEs) are aimed to be established in order to strengthen the collaboration of institutions in Europe-wide cooperation and collaboration through the exchange of expertise.

The aim of the networks of expertise is to transfer newly acquired knowledge into clinical application together with service providers and research institutions. Therefore harmonization with EUnetCCC Joint Action is planned.

The NoEs address the following key topics: complex cancers with poor prognosis, palliative care, survivorship, personalized primary/secondary prevention, OMICs, high-tech medical resources, adolescents and young adults with cancer.

The DKG is co-lead of the task 5.6.4 “Sustainability” as part of Work Package 5 “Network of Expertise for Complex and Poor Prognosis Cancer – NoE PPC” in cooperation with Work Package 4 “Sustainability” . The aim of the task is to jointly develop a sustainability strategy for the NoE PPC by taking key factors such as resource allocation, funding mechanisms, scalability, cooperation with other EU projects and implementation of the results into account. The Work Package 5 is led by the Polish National Cancer Institute in Warsaw.

11/2024 Start of new Joint Action EUnetCCC

The Joint Action ‘European Network of Comprehensive Cancer Centres’ (EUnetCCC) kicked off in October 2024 as the follow-up to the Joint Action CraNE, which ended in September 2024. The aim of the European Network of CCCs is to link CCC structures across Europe to enable all patients to access high-quality research and care structures. The network will serve to establish research and care structures in the member states by exchanging best practice, resources and research results.

Work package 9 „Support the implementation of Comprehensive Cancer Care Networks (CCCNs) to ensure comprehensive, high-quality”, led by the German Cancer Society (DKG) and National Institute of Public Health National Institute of Hygiene-National Research Institute (NIZP PZH-PIB), will further develop the tumour-specific Comprehensive Cancer Care Network (CCCN) approach, which is based on the DKG’s Organ Cancer Centre model, and implement it together with the project partners in 14 pilot networks in 9 countries.

Photo: EUnetCCC Kick-Off-Meeting in Paris October 2024 with Ellen Griesshammer, DKG (second person from the right) and Dorota Dudek-Godeau, NIZP PZH-PIB (first person from the right) ©DKG

11/2024 New Annual Reports 2024

The first round of Annual Reports 2024 are now  available for download. The Annual Reports show the results of tumour-specific indicators documented in 2022 and were verified through audits conducted in 2023. More Annual Reports of further certified Cancer Centres will be published in the course of November. In case of any questions please do not hesitate to contact us under info@ecc-cert.org.

09/2024 Awarding of certificates to the two pilot centres

Awarding of certificates to the two pilot centres

We are delighted to announce another highlight of 4th WorkPackage6 of the Joint Action CraNE. The first two European Lung Cancer CCCNs have been certified.

Congratulations to the “Luxembourg Lung Cancer Network” (Luxembourg) and the “Lower Silesian Oncology, Pulmonology and Hematology Centre” (Wroclaw, Poland)!

The certificate confirms that the requirements of the Set of Standards for Lung Cancer have been comprehensively implemented and that lung cancer patients receive quality-assured oncological care in these two CCCNs.

The “Luxembourg Lung Cancer Network” and the “Lower Silesian Oncology, Pulmonology and Hematology Centre” have done an outstanding job of implementing all the requirements over the past two years.

It has been a great pleasure to accompany both Lung Cancer CCCNs on this journey! Thank you very much for the great cooperation.

DKG is leading Work Package 6 of the Joint Action CraNE, in which the two European Lung Cancer CCCNs were developed and certified.

We look forward to further cooperation within the framework of the new Joint Action “European Network of Comprehensive Cancer Centres” (EUnetCCC). Here, DKG will take the lead of Work Package 9 and continue the work with the CCCNs to support the fulfilment of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan (EBCP).

So stay tuned 😊

Photo: DKG Group picture of both pilot CCCNs from Certificate Awarding Ceremony from 1 July 2024 (left: Team Luxembourg Lung Cancer Network; right: Team Lower Silesian Oncology, Pulmonology and Hematology Center)