The Steering Committee and the Scientific Council of the Danish Comprehensive Cancer Center (DCCC) discussed barriers in the field of cancer at a seminar in November 2017. Photo: Christina Højfeldt, DCCC
05-01-2018
Many things have happened since the Danish government decided to establish the Danish Comprehensive Cancer Center (DCCC) in November 2016, to strengthen cancer research and treatment in Denmark.
In March 2017, DCCC was officially presented in the Danish Parliament and the expectations have been high from the very beginning. DCCC was called ”one of the biggest professional ventures in cancer research”. This is not without reason, because DCCC gathers efforts in cancer research and treatment and the primary purpose is to create optimal conditions for Danish cancer research and treatment.
The first year has been spent on establishing and organising DCCC. The Board approved the terms of reference for the Steering Committee and the Scientific Council. In March 2017, the Steering Committee of DCCC appointed a Scientific Council with 28 key professionals from clinical environments and the universities. In June 2017, a national Secretariat based in Aarhus was established to service and support the Steering Committee and the Scientific Council.
”This organisation works very well in practice. The Scientific Council is best described as the motor of DCCC – the Council is a driver through the professional knowledge of the members and the Steering Committee sets the course for management”, says Anne Bukh, Chairman of the Steering Group.
Forces are joined
DCCC has generally been well received by the cancer environments and the positive view of the DCCC initiative has been confirmed on many occasions.
”If we can agree to work together, we can take advantage of the different kinds of expertise at universities and hospitals and spread this expertise across Denmark. But this will not happen overnight. There are many barriers which need to be removed first”, says Cai Grau, Chairman of the Scientific Council.
Visible barriers and joint meetings
Working with and defining barriers in cancer research has been on the agenda for the first year for the Scientific Council. In August 2017, a seminar was held where values for the Scientific Council were discussed and barriers to national collaboration in the field of cancer were identified. The seminar resulted in a list of barriers presented to the DCCC Steering Committee at a meeting in November 2017. At this meeting, the Scientific Council and the Steering Committee continued the work with finding possible solutions to barriers.
A number of focus areas were chosen for DCCC for 2018, which will be presented at the next meeting in the Steering Committee.