My task will be to summarise the most significant developments during my tenure, from 1996 to 1999. Our membership now includes 64 cancer institutes from 29 European Countries. Central and Eastern European institutes are more and more interested in becoming members and establishing better collaboration. Our budget is healthy, as you will notice from the Financial Report. Reaching the objectives of our organization increasing collaborative activities and improving communication between European cancer institutes is a task for which the President and Executive Board are responsible.
Directors have much to contribute as active participants in the activities of our organization.
Guidelines and recommendations for cancer treatment were deemed to be of prime importance. The role of the OECI should be to provide recommendations which members can use to formulate their own guidelines. The documents would be sent to the European Union, to governments and to Directors, requesting that they increase pressure to implement guidelines in each country. The OECI, which represents the majority of clinical oncology and research fields in Europe, is still cooperating with other organizations to press for a ban on the advertising of tobacco products and for the continuation of the Europe Against Cancer Programme. The national and hospital registries, databases and data exchange systems still need a great deal of work.