Presentation

The Spanish Society of Medical Oncology: objectives, structure and history

The Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) brings together Spanish specialists who are dedicated solely to fighting cancer on all fronts:

• Primary prevention (not smoking, avoiding obesity, taking physical exercise, eating fruit and vegetables)
• Early diagnosis (mammograms, etc.)
• Improved diagnosis (better techniques, molecular biology, PET, etc.)
• Promoting a multidisciplinary approach to provide comprehensive care for cancer patients throughout the whole course of their illness
• Encouraging uniformity of criteria for the treatment of cancer in its various locations and extensions.
• Instigating improvements in the treatment of cancer.
• Promoting research and Continued Training in order to integrate advancements and to continuously update knowledge.
• Lending continuous support for any needs the patients and their families may have.

SEOM is the leading organisation for Oncology in Spain and ensures that excellent-quality care is provided by the Medical Oncology Units, by encouraging the study and research of cancer. SEOM is a society which is actively dedicated to informing and educating the various groups with respect to Oncology: the medical sector, health administration, patients, families, the general public, the pharmaceutical industry and the media.

Its objectives include promoting the study and research of neoplastic disease and seeking to standardise clinical/therapeutic criteria in its diagnosis and treatment. To this end, SEOM aims, on the one hand, to instigate improvements in the treatment of cancer from a care, research and educational perspective. On the other hand, to promote the multidisciplinary approach in order to provide cancer patients with comprehensive care and to encourage uniformity of criteria for the treatment of cancer in its various locations and extensions.

Another of the set objectives is to establish synergy between the activities of the other groups concerned, which include patient associations, scientific societies, although they may not be related specifically to the field of oncology, such as general or family medicine, research centres and international oncology societies.

With regard to the health education of Spanish society on the subject of cancer, SEOM is actively involved in the prevention of this illness, through the promotion of health awareness initiatives aimed at the general public and projects in support of cancer patients.

SEOM considers it essential to emphasise the importance of the primary prevention of cancer, early diagnosis and the role of the Genetic Advice Units where help can be given to families who are susceptible to cancer.

Furthermore, SEOM contributes towards educating, informing and supporting cancer patients and their families. SEOM is committed to those suffering from cancer during all phases of their illness, also after the medical treatment has finished.

SEOM promotes the importance of excellent care for cancer patients. Continued education activities are supported and carried out, both in terms of public and private entities, to ensure that medical oncologists are kept up to date with the latest therapeutic developments. In addition, it supports the production of clinical guides for the diagnosis and treatment of the most common tumours.

With regard to clinical research, SEOM considers it essential to promote this area, ensuring that the time required by administration to authorise clinical trials is competitive. We have top professionals who form Cooperative Research Groups for the various types of cancer: TTD (digestive tract), GEICAM (breast), GECP (lung), etc. These Groups constitute a highly useful and valuable tool for clinical and applied cancer research. They are recognised internationally and are used to collaborate on national and international training and research projects.

At SEOM we are striving to promote research in hospitals and to bring basic research closer to clinical research, providing them with more structural and economic resources and demanding official status and recognition from the Health Authorities. All of this is aimed at achieving excellent progress in translational research.

The work carried out by medical oncologists in Spain has enabled us to reach the highest level in terms of science and care, which is respected by the rest of the world of oncology. This results in an increase in cure rates and life expectancy for most cancers which have received a coordinated treatment thanks to the comprehensive role the medical oncologist plays in the strategy applied to the disease. 

Furthermore, at SEOM we have encouraged the relationship between the Medical Oncology Units and the Basic Research Institutions, within or outside of the thematic networks of cooperative research, in order to obtain greater synergy in translational research.

Structure

SEOM has an internal structure which manages and organises the activities of the Society. We have a Manager, who is responsible for the smooth running of SEOM; a Conventions Department which organises the scientific meetings we hold; a Communications Department responsible for press relations and promoting institutional and public relations activities which help to enhance the public image of SEOM; a technical secretariat and a scientific secretariat, the latter consisting of medical oncologists, members of SEOM.

With this structure, SEOM is a scientific society which is strengthening its position day by day as a benchmark scientifically qualified in the field of oncology to which central and regional Health Authorities, other scientific societies, the media and the general public can refer. All this is the fruit of the efforts invested by the whole team and by the 850 members who with their work make it possible for SEOM to be one of the most active scientific societies.

SEOM increases its membership daily. In September 2006 we have 850 specialists, most of whom are medical oncologists, but there are also a large number of radiotherapists, as well as geneticists and psycho-oncologists.

SEOM strives on a daily basis to improve the services it provides to its members and to offer new services with the desire to facilitate the development of their professional practice. The main services offered by the Society are listed below:

• Free legal advice
• Professional training service
• Updating and publication of the SEOM Directory
• Production and delivery of newsletters (SEOM Newsletter)
• Production and distribution of activities report
• Production and distribution of manuals, clinical guides and consensus documents
• Website (www.seom.org)
• Free delivery of the journal Seminars in Oncology in Spanish
• Free access to several scientific journals of national and international importance
• Advice on organising events and on communication and protocol.

History and background

Over the 36 years in which SEOM has been in existence, each of its presidents has worked towards improving the Society on a day-to-day basis until it has become one of the most active and high-profile scientific societies, both nationally and internationally.

In 1970, the first Spanish scientific society relating to cancer was established. It was the Spanish Society of Oncology (SEO); a multidisciplinary society which brought together doctors from all specialities and also those with no speciality (pathologists, radiotherapists, surgeons, internists, etc.). In 1976, the Spanish Society of Chemotherapy (SEQUIO) was founded and as of 1981, with the speciality of Medical Oncology then officially recognised, it changed its name to the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM). This aimed to bring together all doctors interested in the medical treatment of cancer.

Medical Oncology did not exist as a speciality at that point in Spain. Its definition had been formed in 1972 in the United States and this speciality model was used as a reference in an attempt to create a branch of Medical Oncology within the SEO.

However, this initiative was not very well received by other specialities, as the concept of Clinical Oncology, as it was then called, was very vague, being a multidisciplinary speciality which advocated that therapeutic decisions be taken through the clinical oncologist in a merely coordinating role. It was from there that the SEQUIO was established, which from the outset, and particularly following the publication in 1978 of the decree of specialities, fought for the creation and recognition of the speciality of Medical Oncology and not Clinical Oncology.

Spain was the first European country to establish the speciality of Medical Oncology and this step set an example for the rest of Europe. When the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) was founded, Spain was the only country in which the speciality existed as such. ESMO then put pressure on the governments in other countries to establish the speciality, which now exists in the following European countries: Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.