Proposal for the reorganization of oncology societies, a contribution of the Oncolog-Hematolog.ro journal

Since we have a National Cancer Program, the activity of oncology societies should also be reconsidered.

Normally, there should be a National Oncology Society that includes specialists from all medical specialties which deal with the diagnosis, therapy and fundamental cancer research.

Even the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) has its variant, European Society for Multidisciplinary Oncology. For the ESMO decision, there were numerous discussions, some of which I personally participated in during the 20 years that I have been part of the ESMO Committee. Also, the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) brings together all the specialists who deal with cancer.

In recent years, ESMO has no longer accepted relationships with only one national society, and in case of Romania, this society is the Romanian Society of Radiotherapy and Medical Oncology (SRROM).

The reformation of the oncology societies must be done on democratic principles, with respect for the elections of board officers. In my opinion, the elections must be held as in ESMO, every two years, with an electronic voting system. Thus, a larger number of specialists will be able to access the management of the society. The president of the society should be a medical oncologist, a surgeon or a radiotherapist. It would be logical to have three vice-presidents with different specialties than the president.

The National Society of Medical Onco­logy (SNOMR) should join the new national oncology society. Thus, it will also be accepted by ESMO (after all, we live in the European Union).

The National Health Insurance House will be able to create a truly national com­mis­sion that will lead to the development of protocols acceptable to all oncolo­gists in the country, not only for those from SNOMR, like now. These protocols must be deve­loped based on the “tumor board” principle.

Oncolog-Hematolog.ro journal could help at the national cancer plan if the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy would get involved in the coordination of this journal.

Soon, it will be 10 years since I took over the Oncolog-Hematolog.ro journal as editor-in-chief. I promoted several doctors and academics from the United States, Switzer­land, Israel and, of course, Romania, to be part of the editorial board.

Most of the university staff in Romania belong to the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, but we do not have the involvement of the university as an institution. The journal could enter the PubMed database, which would help the educational and research process in oncology and hematology.

Thank you to all the editors from the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy and from the “Prof. Dr. Alexandru Trestioreanu” Institute of Oncology, Bucharest, who contributed to the promotion of our journal! I would also like to thank to my colleagues from the United States of America.

And to paraphrase a few words that have remained famous, the involvement of the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy and the promotion of the journal in PubMed would be a small step for oncology everywhere, but a huge step for oncology in Romania!