10 years of fight against cancer in Catalonia The ‘Institut Català d'Oncologia’ was created 10 years ago to fight cancer in Catalonia. During these 10 years, ICO, initially designed as an integral centre of cancer treatment in the Duran i Reynals Hospital in Hospitalet de Llobregat, has incorporated the structures of oncologic assistance of two centres with a long history of assistance to oncology patients: Hospital Doctor Josep Trueta in Girona and Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol in Badalona. A total of 2.5 million Catalans depend on the coordinated action of these three centres. More than 75.000 patients with cancer have been treated by the ICO in the last 10 years, which means that it is one of the most experienced in all Europe. With a staff of almost 600 workers, ICO gives a highly specialized assistance, without forgetting the human aspects of the oncologic attention. Its main organizing principle is focused on the needs of each patient and on providing assistance where especial relevance is given to equity and to the number of personnel and actions the closest possible to the patient. Nowadays a document is being elaborated about the survival results of patients with cancer treated at ICO during these years. At the First Congress of Interdisciplinary Oncology, which will take place between the 26th and the 28th of April in Sitges, we will analyze the task and the evolution of cancer treatment in these 10 years of fight against the illness. The Institut Català d’Oncologia is a multi-institutional Public Company created 10 years ago within the framework of the Health Department, with the basic objective of the management and contribution to services of oncologic attention in the assistance, prevention, teaching and research fields. As well as implanting an efficient assistance, and bearing in mind that excellence in oncology is achieved by the creation of structures of clinical and translational research, the ICO-GROUP has developed Programs of search in each and every territory where oncology is present: from epidemiology and cancer prevention to Palliative Cares. This has allowed the creation of work groups of researchers and clinic personnel that face the main challenges of research that modern oncology poses. Interrelations with other centres, national as well as international, allow us to be in the forefront of the world research. As far as clinic research is concerned ICO has adopted an Academy position in which priority is given to quality alliances, betting on medicine based on evidence and the carrying out of therapeutic trials useful for the patients, thus providing all the patients with another element of equity and putting within their reach the new drugs for oncology therapy.
	More than 75.000 patients have been treated at the ICO in the last 10 years.
	There has been an improvement in the assistance thanks to the implantation of a Model of Oncologic Assistance unique of ICO
	There is coordinated treatment because of the start of Functional Units of oncologic assistance.
	A network of oncologic assistance has been created, which offers its services through some twenty hospitals in Catalonia.
The first ICO Congress The first Congress of the ‘Institut Català d'Oncologia’ falls in the scope of the celebration of ICO’s Tenth Anniversary under the title: “Interdisciplinary Oncology: 10 years of ICO” and will take place at the Congress Centre of Hotel Meliá, between the 26th and 28th of April. The complexity of assisting each and every aspect surrounding a patient suffering from a certain tumour implies the effort of many people. The centres that make up the Instituto Catalán de Oncología will share their experience of the application of the Interdisciplinary Oncology Model by means of the Congress; in it, a program is presented which contemplates quotidian interdisciplinary action by means of Work-shops, debates, interactive work-shops and results sessions. The intention of the Congress is to make known, in a critical, decisive and dialoguing way, the main themes of modern oncology, such as “the qualitative alliance between the Pharmacy Industry and the Academy”, “the use of bio-indicators in clinical trials with new compounds”, or “integrated vision of continuing care to the patient with cancer”, among many others The debate about the “Human Face of Cancer” will gather specialists of the three oncology branches, representatives of patients with cancer and the mass media, who will answer questions asked by several famous people from the worlds of art, culture and NGOs by means of video recordings. Another video will show a brief summary of the history, organization and functioning of ICO. The main themes of the Program are: up to 13 different work-shops:
	Truth and lies of the bio-indicators in clinic trials.
	The economy impact on the cancer therapy.
	Curing located prostate cancer with radiation therapy.
	Organization of Palliative Cares in oncology institutes.
	The professional nurses: from the collaboration in trials to nurse research.
	Linphomas.
	Pharmacy- genomic. IGRT
	Clinic trajectories in oncology: tools for efficiency and effectiveness.
	Sentry Ganglion.
	Qualitative evaluation in oncologic organizations.
	Sexuality and cancer.
	Sanitary education for the oncohaematologic patient: “we inform, then... do we educate?
Topicality debates:
	The human face of cancer.
	Cornering cancer from new therapeutic approaches.
	The qualitative alliance between the Pharmacy Industry and the Academy.
	Models of Oncologic Coordination.
	The integrated vision of the cure of rectum cancer.
Interactive sessions between the audience and the lecturers:
	Leukaemia.
	Hereditary cancer.
	Oncologic pain.
Critical presentation of ICO results:
	Functional Units and Management models.
	Program of second opinions.
	Training program.
	Program for radiation therapy technicians and dosemetrists.
	Program for Pharmacy technicians.
	Program of palliative cures.
	The experience with TAMO.
	Larynx preservation.
	Radiation therapy -Chemotherapy in lung cancer.
	Haematologic citogenetics.
The congress is meant for a wide range of professionals: clinic haematologists, Oncology doctors, radiation therapists, experts in palliative cures, epidemiologists, cancer prevention professionals, clinic and translational researchers, health managers, psychologists, members of the medical departments of the pharmaceutical industry, trials controllers, among others, and sanitary and para-sanitary personnel, nurses, several technicians, etc. Our main objective is to make ICO’s transversal oncology stand out, with special attention to the relations among professionals, between different services of the same centre, the interrelation among the three ICO that make up the public company, the relations with the hospitals of the regions and with primary assistance centres and the relations with National and International Cooperative Groups, among others. Innovation in the different fields of oncology will play a fundamental role at the congress, because ICO has been especially involved in new models of assistance management, such as Functional Units, the networks with Hospitals of the region, the Programmed Treatment Unit, home-based chemotherapy, and research, represented by the Clinic Research Unit and the applied Translational Laboratory. The areas of Clinic and Translational Research will be especially mentioned. Nowadays there are more than 100 trials under way. The Translational Research laboratories, where nearly 100 people work, will show the interrelations between both types of research and every-day clinic assistance, with the main objective of reaching equity and continuity in the healing of oncology patients. The ICO model within the Catalan sanitary system will be discussed and compared to models of other Autonomies. Experts from all over the state will participate in these debates. We will also speak about the task performed by the nurses, social workers, psycho-oncologists, Volunteers’ Groups, etc. Other themes will also be spoken about at the debate: Continuing care of the oncology patient, the relation between the Academy and the Pharmaceutical Industry regarding a better use of the resources and the design of the Plan of incorporation of new drugs and, finally, data of survival and mortality to the main tumours will be presented as well as other results of quality and users’ satisfaction; all in a framework of a day devoted to answering the society about the expectations generated from the new knowledge on bio-molecular alterations recently found and designer’s treatments.