Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023;46(3):80-88.
doi: 10.1159/000528487. Epub 2022 Dec 2.

Perspectives for Cancer Care and Research in Central and Eastern Europe

Christoph C Zielinski  1   2 , Tanja Cufer  3 , Bostjan Seruga  4 , Jacek Jassem  5 , Mircea Dediu  6 , Christiane Thallinger  2   7
Affiliations
Review

Perspectives for Cancer Care and Research in Central and Eastern Europe

Christoph C Zielinski et al. Oncol Res Treat. 2023.

Abstract

Background: Discrepancies between the outcomes of cancer patients between Western European and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have often been observed. Despite the enormous economic and civilizational progress made in these countries after the abolishment of the communist regime, structural problems persist.

Summary: The present article reviews the domains of medical oncology education, human resources in oncology, cancer care, and clinical research in CEE in order to comprehensively assess the current situation and needs, describe important initiatives, and also propose ways to improving cancer outcomes in the region. Activities are under way to address these issues in national action plans to divert funding into oncology-related education, research, the purchase of equipment, and the attainment of modern hospital organization and structures.

Key message: Over the past more than 30 years, CEE countries have made enormous economic and societal progress. Nevertheless, challenges especially in the health care sector persist.

Keywords: Cancer care; Central and Eastern Europe; Clinical research; Education; Human resources; Oncology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

T.C.: receipt of honoraria or consultation fees from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, MSD, Pfizer, and Takeda; B.S.: honorary and consultancy fee from Astellas, Jansen, and AstraZeneca; M.D.: advisory role and speaker fees from Aventis, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Amgen, Ipsen, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sandoz, BMS, MSD, Eli Lilly, Servier, and Takeda; J.J.: advisory roles in AstraZeneca, MSD, and Exact Sciences. C.T and C.C.Z.: institution (CECOG): BMS, MSD, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Merck KgA, Amgen, Servier, Eli Lilly, Takeda, Daiichi Sankyo, Roche, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, and Halozyme. C.C.Z.: consultancies and speaker's honoraria from Athenex, MSD, Imugene, AstraZeneca, Servier, and Eli Lilly; patents for Imugene.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a Recognition of medical oncology (MO). Dark blue: MO recognized as specialty. Blue: MO recognized as subspecialty. Green: MO trained in clinical oncology. Yellow: MO trained in haemato-oncology. Purple: MO not recognized. Gray: no information. b Adoption of ESMO/ASCO global curriculum (GC) in medical oncology. Dark blue: GC fully adopted. Blue: GC partly adopted. Green: GC adapted. Yellow: GC adopted but trained abroad. Purple: GC not adopted. Gray: no information. Adopted from Cufer et al. [6] and reproduced under CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ben Mustapha S, Meijnders P, Jansen N, Lakosi F, Coucke P. The status of radiation oncology (RO) teaching to medical students in Europe. Clin Transl Radiat Oncol. 2019 Jul;17:40–6. - PMC - PubMed
    1. European union of medical specialists Medical Specialities. 2013.
    1. Benstead K, Lara PC, Andreopoulos D, Bibault JE, Dix A, Eller YG, et al. Recommended ESTRO core curriculum for radiation oncology/radiotherapy 4th edition. Radiother Oncol. 2019 Dec;141:1–4. - PubMed
    1. Dittrich C, Kosty M, Jezdic S, Pyle D, Berardi R, Bergh J, et al. ESMO/ASCO recommendations for a Global Curriculum (GC) in medical oncology-edition 2016. Ann Oncol. 2016 Aug;27((8)):1378–1381. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Benstead K, Turhal NS, O'Higgins N, Wyld L, Czarnecka-Operacz M, Gollnick H, et al. Multidisciplinary training of cancer specialists in Europe. Eur J Cancer. 2017 Sep;83:1–8. - PubMed