Oncology for medical students: a European School of Oncology contribution to undergraduate cancer education

Abstract

Worldwide undergraduate cancer medicine is taught in a non-unanimous manner. There are frequent overlaps, omissions and discrepancies in the curricula of different medical schools concerning oncology teaching. Various attempts for possible changes and improvements have been made. Several extra-curriculum teaching programmes have been developed in academic European settings in collaboration with other scientific bodies. In this paper, we are analyzing the educational results from 115 medical students--mostly Europeans--who participated in three Oncology Summer Courses (2004, 2005, 2006) organized by European School of Oncology in collaboration with the University of Ioannina.