Saxon Prime Minister lays this Wednesday, May 24, the foundation for the pioneering building for research and treatment of cancer / Patients benefit from the latest methods of diagnosis and therapy / ’OR of the future’ opens new perspectives for cancer surgery / Free State invests 22 million Euros
On the site of the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden a state-of-the-art building is constructed, which connects cancer research and care for cancer patients as closely as possible. The new building of the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Dresden will house as of 2019 a unique research platform and laboratories, areas for patient studies as well as rooms for medical treatment and radiotherapy. The Free State of Saxony provides 22 million Euros for the construction of the building.
On 4 floors and more than 3,000 square meters usable area of the new building of the National Center for Tumor Disease (NCT) Dresden will be working around 200 scientists and physicians engaged in research. Simultaneously cancer patients can be treated with the latest methods. With the ‘OR of the future’ a special research area moves into the building, in which instruments and gadgets are digitally connected. Here scientist can obtain important data to develop computer- and robot-based assistance systems for cancer surgery. The OR will be directly spatial connected to most modern imaging methods and radiotherapy units. Due to the close connection of central research and treatment areas the results of the cancer research will be developed quickly and well-directed to benefit the patients.
‘Each year around half a million people in Germany are newly diagnosed with cancer. We need top-level research in this area to be able to develop the therapies of tomorrow and beyond. For this purpose the new building of the NCT in Dresden will provide best conditions’, explains Prime Minister Stanislaw Tillich on the occasion of the groundbreaking.
Federal Minister for Education and Research Johanna Wanka: ‘ With today’s groundbreaking of the NCT in Dresden we establish, due to the close collaboration of research and everyday clinical practice, excellent conditions for a patient orientated cancer research, which can compete with the best in the world.’
Prof. Christof von Kalle, Executive Director of the NCT Heidelberg: ‘The concept of the NCT to consequently implement the interdisciplinary collaboration also spatial and to focus the interdisciplinary collaboration on the patient has definitely been established in Heidelberg. The new building in Dresden creates identical conditions to combine cancer research and patient care in one building.’
The Saxon capital was nominated in 2014 as partner location of the National Centrum for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg because of its scientific and medical competencies. Both sites collaborate closely and complement the expertise of each other. The NCT Dresden is supported by the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, the Medical Faculty of the Technical University Dresden and the Helmholtz-Center Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). The new building makes those important institutions also externally visible and provides an excellent infrastructure for cancer research close to the patient and for the care of cancer patients.
Prof. D. Michael Albrecht, Medical Manager of the University Hospital Dresden: ‘Due to the new building of the NCT the capacities of oncological research on the campus will be considerably expanded. From this our patients directly benefit. They profit within the framework of studies from the latest methods of diagnosis and therapy. Subsequently those innovations should provide benefit for all cancer patients.’
Prof. Michael Baumann, Chairman and Scientific Manager of the German Cancer Research Center: ‚We see the personalized oncology as a real revolution of the fight against cancer. This means that in future therapy and diagnosis will be tailored on the basis of the biological characteristics of each tumor even more individually to each cancer patient than it is provided by current standards. Pioneering research in this field will take place in the NCT-building of Dresden – in close cooperation with Heidelberg.’
Prof. Hans Müller-Steinhagen, Rector of the Technical University Dresden: ‚The NCT-building is not only in its spatial design future-oriented, but will provide especially to the next generation of physicians and scientists ideal framework. We are glad that the junior scientists trained at the TU Dresden will find here optimal research conditions and can work together with great minds.’
Prof. Roland Sauerbrey, Scientific Director of the Helmholtz-Centre Dresden-Rossendorf: ‚The NCT Dresden gives us the chance to expand the strong collaboration with our Helmholtz-Colleagues of the German Cancer Research Center as well as with our local partners of the TU Dresden and the University Hospital. This affects for example our research in the field of proton and immunotherapy or the development of new radioactive drugs for diagnosis and treatment of tumors.’
The following images of the press release are available free of charge:
Image 1: https://www.nct-heidelberg.de/fileadmin/media/nct-dresden/das-nct/newsroom/Neubau_PM.jpg
Caption: View of the new building of the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Dresden
Image 2: https://www.nct-heidelberg.de/fileadmin/media/nct-dresden/das-nct/newsroom/Grundsteinlegung_PM_neu.jpg
Caption: Groundbreaking new building of the NCT, from left to right: Wilfried E. B. Winzer, University Hospital Dresden, Prof. Jürgen Weitz, NCT Dresden, Prof. Roland Sauerbrey, Helmholtz-Center Dresden-Rossendorf, Stanislaw Tillich, Prime Minister of the Free Sate Saxony, Prof. Michael Baumann, German Cancer Research Center, Prof. D. Michael Albrecht, University Hospital Dresden