University Hospital Essen

University Hospital Essen — one of the largest medical complexes in Germany — comprises 27 clinical departments and 22 research institutes and holds the honorary title of «Hospital of the Ruhr Metropolis». The hallmark of the complex is the close interplay between clinical practice, scientific research and the training of qualified medical professionals. Patients have 1,300 inpatient beds at their disposal. Every year more than 50,000 inpatients and more than 165,000 outpatients are treated here. The hospital employs more than 5,800 staff. University Hospital Essen provides medical care as well as state-of-the-art diagnostics and comprehensive treatment of the highest standard. Its international reputation rests on its success in developing and applying new treatment methods in oncology, transplantation, cardiovascular disease, perinatal medicine, stroke care and post-traumatic conditions. It was at University Hospital Essen that Germany's first Positron Emission Tomography Centre was established.

Since 2009 the hospital has run a comprehensive cancer centre: the West German Cancer Centre | Das Westdeutsche Tumorzentrum Essen (WTZ) — one of the largest and most respected in Germany. The Centre owes its success in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients to close interdisciplinary cooperation with other departments of the hospital, as well as to advanced developments in tumour diagnostics and the use of gene therapy as an alternative to chemotherapy.

Alongside surgery, every form of drug treatment is used here. In addition to conventional chemotherapy, the properties of monoclonal antibodies — substances that inhibit tumour growth — are actively studied and applied.

The Cancer Centre of University Hospital Essen treats both adults and children. One of its units specialises in cancers of childhood and adolescence.

The same Centre treats patients with neuroendocrine tumours, thyroid carcinomas, liver tumours, carcinomas of various organs — the breast, lungs, bronchi and prostate — as well as malignant lymphomas and sarcomas. In some cases treatment is delivered by brachytherapy: the radiation source is placed inside or next to the affected organ. This makes it possible to reduce the radiation dose and to minimise damage to the adjacent tissues and organs.

In neurosurgery, the minimally invasive technique of stereotactic surgery is widely used, not only for treatment but also for diagnosis – in particular for biopsies.

Key specialities of the West German Cancer Centre:

• dermato-oncology;
• neuroendocrine tumours;
• bone and soft tissue sarcoma;
• adrenal gland tumours;
• ocular oncology (tumours of the eye);
• breast cancer;
• cancer of the external and internal genital organs;
• cancers of the gastrointestinal tract;
• haematological oncology.

Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcoma Centre

University Hospital Essen includes a Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcoma Centre, which provides diagnosis and treatment for cancers of the musculoskeletal system.

The Sarcoma Centre at the West German Cancer Centre is one of the largest centres in Europe for the treatment of bone and soft tissue sarcoma. It offers a broad range of services delivered by highly qualified surgeons, radiotherapy specialists, oncologists, radiologists and pathologists, as well as paediatricians.

The Sarcoma Centre diagnoses and treats all malignant tumours of bone and soft tissue. The centre specialises in the multimodal therapy of bone sarcomas, retroperitoneal sarcomas and locally advanced soft tissue sarcomas, combining all available techniques in the optimal way. Thanks to intensive clinical and scientific research, the Centre can offer its patients the very latest drug developments that are still at an early stage of clinical trials (phase I). The Sarcoma Centre is also the headquarters of international research into Ewing's sarcoma.

The Centre's aim is to provide patients with the best possible treatment, to preserve the function of organs and tissues and to keep side effects to a minimum.

For bone tumours, special silver-coated, custom-made joint prostheses are used. The Centre is Germany's leading institution for isolated limb perfusion and for the molecular biological analysis of tumour cells. It is actively involved in the working group on bone and soft tissue tumours and in the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, both of which run clinical trials of the newest techniques.

Bone Marrow Transplant Centre

Head of department: Prof. Dr. med. Dietrich W. Beelen. Bone marrow transplants have been performed regularly at the university hospital since 1975. Each year University Hospital Essen carries out around 150 bone marrow and blood stem cell transplants. University Hospital Essen is also one of the largest bone marrow transplant centres in the world. The Bone Marrow Transplant Centre is an accredited centre of the German and European societies for bone marrow and blood stem cell transplantation, and an accredited partner of the American donor registry The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP).

The Centre performs stem cell transplants for patients with tumours of the brain and spinal cord and with cancers of the blood vessels of the head and spine.

Services of the paediatric oncology department

• chemotherapy;
• thermotherapy;
• blood replacement therapy;
• bone marrow cell transplantation.

Areas of specialisation of the Bone Marrow Transplant Centre

• autologous and allogeneic blood stem cell transplantation;
• bone marrow transplantation;
• harvesting of stem cell grafts from blood and bone marrow;
• stem cell collection centre for worldwide donation;
• cell therapy (including for rheumatic diseases);
• immunotherapy;
• chemotherapy;
• pain management;
• chronic myeloid leukaemia;
• acute myeloid and lymphoblastic leukaemia;
• myelodysplastic syndrome;
• osteomyelofibrosis and other myeloproliferative syndromes;
• multiple myeloma, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia;
• low-grade lymphomas;
• clear cell renal carcinoma (Hypernephrom).