New Edition of ESMO/ASCO Global Curriculum in Medical Oncology: Setting Standards for Modern Training

LUGANO, Switzerland, September 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

ESMO, the leading European professional organization for medical oncology, in collaboration with the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), published today the 2016 edition of the ESMO/ASCO Recommendations for a Global Curriculum (GC) in Medical Oncology, a set of common guidelines to offer a global perspective of the clinical training required for physicians to qualify as medical oncologists.

"Recent significant advances in medical oncology made updating the curriculum a necessary step," said ESMO Chair of the ESMO/ASCO Global Curriculum Working Group, Christian Dittrich.

This third edition has been expanded and updated to include:

o    Stand-alone chapters: immunotherapy; biological therapy; pathology; molecular pathology; laboratory medicine; translational research; genetic counselling

o    New chapters/(sub)sections: Principles of personalized cancer medicine; Molecular imaging; Rare cancers; Cancer treatment in patients with comorbidities; Survivorship

o    Expanded (sub)chapters: Targeted therapies are integrated into the (sub)chapters of the separate tumour entities wherever suitable.

"More than 100 contributors have dedicated their oncologic and didactic expertise to establish the updated recommendations to be fulfilled for qualifying as medical oncologist. The endorsements by 47 national oncology societies worldwide will allow patients, wherever they live, to get state-of-the-art cancer care," said Dittrich.

The Global Curriculum is a living document, and as such must be regularly reviewed and updated. "The future of our specialty is in the hands of those who we are now training. To the degree we are able to establish a uniform, truly global curriculum, we will be helping patients the world over," said Michael Kosty, ASCO Representative on the GC Working Group.

"The ESMO/ASCO GC can be considered the ultimate guide in becoming a medical oncologist," said Mário Fontes e Sousa, Phd student at the Portuguese Institute of Oncology, Porto, Portugal. "It's one of the most important tools for trainee education that a medical oncologist in training could ask for."

ESMO President Fortunato Ciardiello said, "The release of the 2016 edition of the Global Curriculum highlights ESMO's and ASCO's commitment to supporting oncologists' education worldwide so that they can further sharpen their expertise, adapt to the rapid changes in standards of practice, and learn how to collaborate effectively with other specialists in an integrated, multi-professional setting."

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SOURCE European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)