Cancer Center

Fondazione Poliambulanza Cancer Center

The Fondazione Poliambulanza Cancer Centre is a multidisciplinary organization that brings together all the expertise involved in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care of people with cancer.

Rather than being a single department or outpatient clinic, it is an integrated network of clinical, surgical, diagnostic, therapeutic, care, and research units working together according to shared Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Care Pathways (PDTA).

The model is developed in accordance with the standards of the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI).



 

The aim is to ensure that every patient receives timely, multidisciplinary, and personalized care, with continuity of care throughout every stage of the pathway: from initial suspicion to diagnosis, from treatment planning to follow-up, through to rehabilitation, survivorship care and, when necessary, palliative care.

At the heart of this model is collaboration among specialists from different disciplines, who work together in a coordinated manner to identify the most appropriate treatment pathway, sharing clinical decisions and placing the patient and their individual needs at the centre of care.

Accessing the Cancer Centre

Access to the Cancer Centre may take place through different routes:

• following a positive screening result;
• upon referral by a General Practitioner (GP) or specialist, through Fondazione Poliambulanza’s appointment booking channels;
• following a consultation or diagnostic investigation performed at Fondazione Poliambulanza that identifies a suspected cancer;
• during a hospital admission, an Emergency Department visit, or an internal specialist assessment;
• upon referral from another hospital or an external specialist;
• when a cancer diagnosis has already been made at another healthcare facility, in order to complete staging, obtain a multidisciplinary assessment, start treatment, or continue follow-up;
• for reassessment in the event of recurrence or progression, or when a change in the treatment plan is required;
• for a structured second opinion, when followed by subsequent clinical care at the Cancer Centre.

Following the initial clinical assessment and review of the available documentation, Cancer Centre professionals internally refer the patient to the appropriate Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) and coordinate the subsequent stages of the care pathway.

To ensure a comprehensive assessment, patients diagnosed at another healthcare facility are advised to provide medical reports, clinical documentation, diagnostic imaging, pathology slides or tissue samples when requested, as well as information on any treatments already received.

The Model of Care

The Cancer Centre is governed by a dedicated Board, which provides coordinated oversight of its clinical, care, scientific, educational, and organizational activities.

The Board is a multidisciplinary governing body that brings together the hospital’s management, the heads of the clinical, surgical, and diagnostic units involved in cancer care pathways, case management leadership, clinical research, quality, risk management, operations management, and other support functions.

The Cancer Centre Board provides strategic direction, coordination, and oversight. It:

• coordinates the oncology Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Care Pathways (PDTA);
• oversees the activities of the Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs);
• monitors access times, quality indicators, and patient outcomes;
• promotes audits and quality improvement initiatives;
• fosters the integration of patient care and clinical research;
• plans professional education and training;
• promotes the involvement of patients and caregivers;
• monitors compliance with OECI standards and other quality and safety standards adopted by Fondazione Poliambulanza;
• defines the Cancer Centre’s development priorities.

This governance model helps overcome fragmentation across departments and services, bringing the different stages of cancer care under a unified clinical and organizational framework.

Quality, Safety and Continuous Improvement

The Cancer Centre’s activities are monitored through indicators relating to activity volumes, multidisciplinary coverage, time to diagnosis and treatment, adherence to Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Care Pathways (PDTA), clinical outcomes, complications, and patient experience.

The Cancer Centre Board periodically reviews these results, promotes audits, and defines improvement actions. The perspectives of patients and caregivers are also actively taken into account through tools that measure patient experience and outcomes reported directly by the people receiving care, such as Patient-Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) and Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs).

This system enables clinical and organizational data to be translated into concrete improvement actions, ensuring that the model of care remains aligned with the latest scientific evidence and focused on quality, safety, and person-centred care.


 

ESMO Certification: Cancer Care Designed Around Every Patient

Since 2012, the Oncology Unit at Fondazione Poliambulanza has been recognized by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) as a “Designated Centre of Integrated Oncology and Palliative Care.”

ESMO is Europe’s leading professional organization for medical oncology and has been committed for decades to advancing the field of oncology and promoting a multidisciplinary approach to cancer treatment and care.