Madrid's 12 de Octubre hospital joins Europe's network of comprehensive cancer centres

Specialists from different fields sit in the same room, in front of a screen, and decide together how to treat each patient. That way of working is what Europe has just recognised at Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre in Madrid.

The Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI) has granted it accreditation as a Comprehensive Cancer Centre, with a specific Research Excellence seal. According to the Community of Madrid, it is the first public hospital complex in the region to achieve this, and one of the first anywhere to hold the research seal.

A meeting of the Breast Committee at 12 de Octubre, one of the hospital’s multidisciplinary cancer committees. Photo: Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre (courtesy to Happy News of the Day).

Two years of work and an audit in April

The hospital set up its Comprehensive Cancer Centre in 2024, bringing together its clinical services, research at its i+12 institute and teaching with Complutense University of Madrid. It was admitted as an OECI member that same year. In January 2026 the European body judged it ready for audit, which took place in April.

“For patients, this is a guarantee of quality care,” Dr Enrique González Billalabeitia, head of a medical oncology section, told Vozpópuli. Head of medical oncology Luis Paz-Ares put it this way: “This is not recognition for one department, but for the work of the whole hospital.”

The Medical Oncology Day Hospital at 12 de Octubre. Photo: Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre (courtesy to Happy News of the Day).

A network of around a hundred hospitals

The OECI is a non-profit founded in 1979. It brings together around a hundred accredited cancer centres in Europe and shares the European Union’s goal that by 2030, 90% of cancer patients are treated at one of these centres. The idea is that every patient reaches the team best suited to their tumour, wherever they live.

Six other public hospitals in Madrid are at different stages of the same process: Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda, Clínico San Carlos, Ramón y Cajal, La Paz, Gregorio Marañón and La Princesa.