National Cancer Institute

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) was established in 1931 together with the first oncology centres in Europe and is the leader in the field of cancer research in Lithuania. NCI is a member of many strategic international networks, including the European research infrastructure for biobanking BBMRI-ERIC, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), the International Union Against Cancer (UICC).

Currently, clinical activities of NCI are located at the National Cancer Centre (NCC) and involve multidisciplinary teams composed of ~180 doctors, ~350 nurses, focusing on precision medicine, implementation of innovative methods, and constant improvement of the service. NCC is composed of Diagnostic, Surgical, Chemo- and Radiotherapy Centres providing health care services to adult patients with solid tumors of all localizations and rehabilitation, and palliative care. Annually NCC manages ~130 th. patient visits, ~10 th. inpatient visits, performs ~6 th. surgical procedures, ~6 th. courses of chemo/radiotherapy treatment of solid tumors. NCC is also a certified excellence and/or training centre for European professional organizations. NCC has a certified prostate cancer centre of the European Board of Urology (EBU-EAU), breast cancer of European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists (Eusoma), belongs to European Reference Network EURORDIS as a centre for rare gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary tumors. NCC is accredited by the Organization of European Cancer Institutes (OECI) as a Clinical Cancer Centre and together with NCI is seeking for accreditation as the Comprehensive Cancer Centre of OECI.

The research unit of NCI is a public state institute composed of laboratories of Epidemiology, Biomedical Physics, Immunology, Molecular Oncology, Genetic Diagnostic, and infrastructures like Biobank, Cancer Registry and Clinical Trial Centre, with 60 scientists and 35 PhD students working in the field of cancer research. Modern methods of genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, nanoscience, immunology, epidemiology, and experimental oncology that have been implemented in NCI enable active participation of NCI in cancer research and innovation development, as well as extensive collaboration in HE grant applications.