The many developments in cancer research and cancer therapy in recent years have led both to an increasing importance of patient participation in personal therapy decisions and to the involvement of patients in the assessment of research concepts and in strategic planning in health care on these topics.

Cancer research aims to cure more patients of cancer, prolong patients' lives, and improve their quality of life. This means that cancer research must be particularly focused on the needs of patients.

As current or former patients, they also have extensive and varied experience of the complex effects of oncological diseases and oncological care on the reality of their lives. With this experiential knowledge, patients contribute their perspective to the development of research questions and their implementation.

This complex personal experiential knowledge of the patients is contrasted with the complex processes of modern molecular research projects, the difficult procedures of therapy studies and multimodal treatment concepts. The complicated structure of the health care system with its various stakeholders also makes it difficult to involve patients as partners in decision-making.

In addition, the patients concerned have dealt intensively with their own cancer and have not yet considered a broader spectrum of oncological diseases to the same extent.

The aim of the Patient Competence Center North is to enable committed and interested patients in a structured training concept as patient ambassadors to understand the essential elements of research, clinical care and the health care system more precisely, in order to be able to actively participate in the evaluation of scientific projects with public and governmental third-party funders and to be able to advise scientists and clinicians in the development and implementation of cancer research projects and clinical trials from the perspective of those affected.

The Patient Competence Center North is also intended to enable interested graduates to work in the longer term in committees, professional societies and health care organizations on the topic of cancer and cancer research, and thus help to anchor and sustainably strengthen the patient perspective there.

Participation in the training at the Patient Competence Center NORD also provides an ideal basis for longer-term political commitment as a patient ambassador in the health care system.

Are you a (former) cancer patient and interested in training to become a patient ambassador?

In the following handout we have summarized all the important information for you.

Handout Patient Ambassador (German)

All questions about the Patient Competence Center North will be answered by our contact person Avin Hell, +49 (0) 40 7410 - 57835 or a.hell@uke.de .

Thank you for your interest!

University Cancer Center Hamburg (UCCH)

• Prof. Dr. Carsten Bokemeyer
• Avin Hell
• Prof. Dr. Isabelle Scholl
• Dr. Maike Täger

University Cancer Center Schleswig-Holstein (UCCSH)

• Prof. Dr. Anne Letsch
• NN

Patient Advisory Council

• Heide Lakemann (UCCH)
• Jürgen Martens (UCCH)
• Veronika Dörre (UCCSH)
• Martina Oppermann (UCCSH)
• Silvia Kleinebeckel (UCCH)

Funding is provided jointly by UCCH and UCCSH. The concept was coordinated with the patient representative of the German Cancer Society.