The expansion of the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) is an important part of the National Decade against Cancer initiated by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The goal of the NCT is to bring promising results from cancer research quickly and safely into clinical application. The aim is to give patients nationwide access to innovative treatment approaches. In order to expand patient participation in Germany, the partnership between patients and researchers has been firmly implemented in the NCT. The aim is to take the patient's perspective into account in all phases of cancer research.

Heidelberg has been the first NCT site since 2004, Dresden the second site since 2015. On February 2, 2023, the BMBF announced the new sites: Berlin, SüdWest (Tübingen/Stuttgart-Ulm), WERA (Würzburg with partners Erlangen, Regensburg and Augsburg) and West (Cologne/Essen). This means that a total of six NCT sites are now cooperating with the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) to advance clinical cancer research in Germany and to improve treatment outcomes and the quality of life of cancer patients. »Overview of NCT sites and their supporting institutions