NRW gets National Center for Tumor Diseases

Science Minister Brandes signs federal-state agreement

This signature is good news for hundreds of thousands of cancer patients in North Rhine-Westphalia! On Friday, November 24, 2023, North Rhine-Westphalia's Science Minister Ina Brandes and Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger sealed the federal-state agreement on the joint funding of the National Center for Tumor Diseases Cologne/Essen (NCT West) in Heidelberg. From January 1, 2024, the NCT West will receive annual funding of 13 million euros from the federal government and a further 1.45 million euros from the state.

Science Minister Ina Brandes: "Hundreds of thousands of patients and their families will benefit from the National Tumor Center Essen/Cologne. Excellent scientists are working here to defeat the widespread disease of cancer. In North Rhine-Westphalia, they find strong competition and an outstanding infrastructure - the best conditions for successful research at a top international level. With the founding of the Cancer Research Center Cologne Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia has created an important prerequisite for successful work as a National Tumor Center. The funding from the federal government and inclusion in the group of National Centers Against Tumors is recognition and at the same time an incentive to further advance their valuable research work."

The funding as an NCT is a huge success for the cancer researchers in North Rhine-Westphalia. It puts them at the absolute forefront in the fight against the widespread disease of cancer.

Cancer affects hundreds of thousands of patients and their relatives in North Rhine-Westphalia alone. In 2020 alone, 55,902 men and 52,837 women were diagnosed with cancer. In the same year, 27,619 men and 23,973 women died of cancer. The physicians at the university hospitals in Cologne and Essen are already treating many of the people suffering from cancer in North Rhine-Westphalia. Together, over 50,000 patients are treated there every year.

Professor Martin Schuler, MD, Managing Director, NCT West - Campus Essen: "We are delighted that we at Essen University Hospital, together with our partners from Cologne University Hospital, can offer patients in Germany's most populous federal state direct access to research into the latest diagnostic and treatment methods in personalized cancer medicine with the NCT West."

Professor Dr. med. Michael Hallek, Managing Director NCT West - Campus Cologne: "As a central point of contact for cutting-edge research in the field of oncology, the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) will play a key role in North Rhine-Westphalia. The NCT combines the interdisciplinary expertise of physicians and researchers to develop innovative approaches in the fight against cancer. The close cooperation between clinics and research institutions at the NCT not only promotes pioneering therapy concepts, but also accelerates the transfer of the latest scientific findings into clinical practice. In this way, the NCT contributes significantly to North Rhine-Westphalia's position as a pioneer in cancer research by creating a bridge between research and patient care."

The National Center for Tumor Diseases is a long-term cooperation between the German Cancer Research Center, excellent partners in university medicine and other outstanding research partners. Together with the NCT West, the NCT sites Berlin, Southwest (Tübingen/Stuttgart with partner Ulm) and WERA (Würzburg with partners Erlangen, Regensburg and Augsburg) will also be permanently funded in the future. With Heidelberg and Dresden, there are now six NCT sites in Germany. Their aim is to lead clinical research into new diagnostic and treatment methods for the benefit of cancer patients to a top international level. The federal and state governments plan to fund the NCT with a total of up to 98 million euros per year when it is completed. The expansion of the NCT is part of the "National Decade Against Cancer".

The university hospitals in Essen and Cologne had already applied to be candidates for the expansion of the NCT in a competition in 2020 and were able to convince the international panel of experts in the subsequent concept development phase. At the beginning of the year, the Federal Ministry of Research announced that Essen/Cologne would become a permanent part of the NCT.

An important prerequisite for this great success was the foundation of the Cancer Research Center Cologne Essen (CCCE) as a cross-location research center, which was supported by the state. With the aim of state-wide networking and integration of all potentials in oncological research and cutting-edge university medicine, the CCCE is linked to other partners via the NRW Network of Excellence in Cancer Medicine. The CCCE deals with forward-looking key topics, such as medical data science, the transfer of new research results into application (translational oncology) and computer-aided cancer biology. The state government has been funding the CCCE as an excellent cancer research center of supraregional importance with 20 million euros since 2020.

To the press release of the CIO Cologne: NRW gets National Center for Tumor Diseases - Center for Integrated Oncology (CIO) Cologne (uk-koeln.de)