INTRODUCTION Christian Dittrich Michael Kosty With the increasing internationalisation of healthcare as well as the increased exchange of specialists and knowledge across borders, the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) identified more than a decade ago the need for a set of international recommendations for the clinical training of physicians to qualify them as medical oncologist. Patients, wherever they live, should have an equal chance of receiving state-of-the-art treatment from well-trained physicians.
In 2004, a joint ESMO/ASCO Task Force produced the first outline for a Global Core Curriculum (GCC) for training in medical oncology. This outline was subsequently distributed to universities as well as medical oncology societies and was simultaneously published in the Annals of Oncology and the Journal of Clinical Oncology. 1 2 The Global Curriculum (GC) Task Force also produced a Log Book as a support tool for medical oncologists in training and their supervisors with the purpose of keeping a record of oncology trainees’ educational programs and their progress.3 4
Interest in using the GCC outline has increased considerably since its inception, as evidenced by translations in different languages available on the ESMO and ASCO websites.5 6 It is also used as a model for the development of the specialty of medical oncology in several countries around the world. The GCC was updated in 2010.7 8 The corresponding Log Book was updated in 2016 by the Global Curriculum Working Group (GC WG) which evolved from the GC Task Force.9 10
