EORTC Structure

The EORTC is comprised of the General Assembly, the Board, several committees, a network of scientists and clinical investigators, and the Headquarters staff.

The General Assembly is the legislative body of the EORTC. Policies, proposals, and strategies are discussed and approved by the General Assembly. The General Assembly delegates specific functions to the Board, Committees or appointed persons.

The EORTC Network is organised into groups of scientists and/or clinicians each with a specific area of interest in cancer research. These groups conduct translational research and/or clinical trials on all types of cancers using a multidisciplinary approach. All Groups have a voting representative (the Chair) within the General Assembly. In June 2005, the EORTC statutes were amended to include representatives from the 15 top accruing institutions as full members of the General Assembly. The General Assembly meets at least once a year and elects a new EORTC Board once every three years.

The Board is the steering and executive body, which advises the General Assembly on new activities and formulates proposals to be ratified by the General Assembly. The Board meets at least twice a year. The Board consists of 21 elected (voting) members and several ex-officio members. The voting members select among themselves the President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary General.

The Executive Committee was created by Emmanuel van der Schueren in 1991. The Executive Committee provides support to the President in the decision making and strategy planning process. The Executive Committee consists of several voting members of the Board plus the Director General who is an ex officio (non-voting) member of the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee meets as often as needed (once every six weeks on average), and communicates via phone and e-mail on a weekly basis. The Executive Committee reports to the Board.

The Director General coordinates all administrative, legal and financial management activities of the organisation; and implements the strategies and policies as defined by the Board. Additional responsibilities include EU projects coordination, information dissemination and logistic support for EORTC courses and conferences.

 

EORTC COMMITTEES:
 MC: Membership Committee
IRB: Institutional Review Committee
SAC: Scientific Advisory Committee
QAC: Quality Assurance Committee
PRC: Protocol Review Committee
NDAC: New Drug Development Committee
TRAC: Translational Research Advisory Committee
IDMC: Independent Data Monitoring Committee

EORTC Network

All EORTC scientific activities are conducted within multidisciplinary groups divided into the Translational Research and Clinical Research Divisions. Emphasis is placed on translational research and cooperation between EORTC Groups and Task Forces.

This forms the basis of a network of oncology specialists:

A network of scientists:
• Experienced EORTC Investigators and Study Coordinators;
• Experienced translational research and laboratory scientists.

A network of institutions:
• A network of excellence, including the EORTC Groups, and more recently, the Network of Core Institutions (NOCI);
• Access to high patient accrual;
• Access to rare cancer subpopulations;
• Access to multi-tumour studies.

EORTC research offers an integrated approach to the evaluation of innovative agents, a comprehensive broad clinical trial programme, multimodality therapeutic strategic evaluation, and special research projects including the study of quality of life.

In cooperation with the clinical groups, the EORTC Translational Research Division focuses on preclinical testing of new anticancer agents, receptors, and tumour markers. It also provides support for translational research projects conducted within the EORTC as well as on pharmacology and molecular mechanisms, pathology, and imaging.

The EORTC Clinical Research Division is mainly involved in the conduct of clinical trials through either tumour-specific groups (Brain Tumour, Breast Cancer, Melanoma, Leukaemia, etc.) or modalityoriented cooperative groups such as the Radiation Oncology Group.

Groups are created and dissolved by decision of the EORTC Board. The EORTC Board may set up task forces, which may possibly be converted into groups after a probationary period.

Individuals interested in forming a Group should contact EORTC Headquarters to obtain guidance as to where they would best fit into the EORTC structure.

Last updated on 27-08-2009