Cancer Research

Some 450,000 people per year in Germany develop cancer. In spite of intensive research activity and numerous fundamentally new developments in this field, more than half the number of patients still dies from the consequences of the disease. The Cancer Research Programme aims at unlocking the causes and modes of development of cancer diseases.

One of the programme’s focal points is the development and application of innovative diagnostic and therapeutic procedures based on molecular, cell biological and immunological findings. Medical engineering also plays a key role in the Cancer Research Programme, above all by developing new imaging methods and strategies for radiation therapy, which allow for more precise diagnoses and therapies, as well as early detection and disease prevention. The transfer of findings from biomedical basic research into clinical applications is one of the great challenges of cancer research and is to be further advanced by the intensive development of a correspondent infrastructure and strategic alliances. Here, the National Centre for Tumour Diseases (NCT) in Heidelberg has a key part.