GENERAL AND SUPPORTIVE CARE Oncology for medical students: A European School of Oncology contribution to undergraduate cancer education N. Pavlidis a, * , J.B. Vermorken b , R. Stahel c , J. Bernier d , A. Cervantes e , R. Audisio f , G. Pentheroudakis a , A. Costa g a Department of Medical Oncology, Medical School, University of Ioannina, 451 10 Ioannina, Greece b University Hospital of Antwerp, Department of Oncology, Edegem, Belgium c University Hospital of Zurich, Department of Oncology, Zurich, Switzerland d University of Geneva, Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland e Hematology and Medical Oncology Department, Hospital Clinico Universitario, Valencia, Spain f Whiston Hospital, Prescot, United Kingdom g European School of Oncology, Milan, Italy Received 15 February 2007; accepted 15 February 2007 KEYWORDS European school of oncology (ESO); Cancer; Undergraduate teaching; Courses; Summer schools Summary Worldwide undergraduate cancer medicine is taught in a non-unanimous manner. There are frequent overlaps, omissions and discrepancies in the curricula of different medical schools concerning oncology teaching. Various attempts for possible changes and improvements have been made. Several extra-curriculum teaching programmes have been developed in aca- demic European settings in collaboration with other scientific bodies. In this paper, we are analyzing the educational results from 115 medical students – mostly Europeans – who participated in three Oncology Summer Courses (2004, 2005, 2006) organized by European School of Oncology in collaboration with the University of Ioannina.  c 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Teaching of Oncology at the undergraduate level lacks uni- formity worldwide and considerable variations among medical faculties are present. Since Oncology is a multidis- ciplinary specialty, medical students are coming across cancer aspects throughout the curriculum. Several clinical topics are taught separately in the frame of internal medi- cine or surgery during the 3rd to 6th year of medical educa- tion. 1–7 This fragmentation of undergraduate education is more evident in Europe due to the absence of a distinct module or syllabus between medical schools even within the same 0305-7372/$ - see front matter  c 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ctrv.2007.02.005 * Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +30 3 26510 99394. E-mail address: npavlid@cc.uoi.gr (N. Pavlidis). Cancer Treatment Reviews (2007) 33, 419– 426 available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevierhealth.com/journals/ctrv