The following Centres have accepted an agreement with ESO to ensure high standard clinical practice and scientific tutorship to its fellows.

Click on each centre to view the fellowship programmes they offer.

Structured Educational Programme

The following are some of the direct contact education experiences that are available to successful candidates. They are divided into clinical teaching activities common to all cancer types, as well as those specific to the different specialties and cancer types.

• General experience
  Become an integrated member of the specific cancer team to which you are assigned.
  Attend weekly ward rounds, multidisciplinary meetings, radiology conferences, pathology conferences, research meetings.
  Attend outpatients clinics (approximately 3 per week).
  Attend at local/regional/national cancer meetings taking place during the period visit of the candidate.
• Specialty and/or disease specific experience
  As well as the above, as a trainee you will be exposed to the clinical activity specific to your specialty and site-specific interest. As such, a tailor-made programme will be developed for each candidate to meet their educational needs. It will differ between the specialties of surgical, radiation and medical oncology. Specific examples include attendance to operating sessions for the surgical oncologists, attendance at simulation and other activities relating to radiation oncology, as well as planning of therapeutic regimens for medical oncology.

It will be possible to discuss with each successful candidate what mix of the above best suits their goals.

In order to gain a true insight into multidisciplinary care it is encouraged that Fellows spend 1 – 2  weeks in the other specialties, e.g. a medical oncologist spending 2 weeks in the radiotherapy and surgical oncology departments.

Enrolment

Trainees can be enrolled at the host institute with a visiting observer status (3 - 6 months) or a visiting residency status (6 months only). The enrolment procedure is to be discussed directly with the host institute. However, please be informed that obtaining residency status may take up to 6 months.

Visiting observership status = Direct contact with patients is not foreseen. The host institute will relate with the trainee regarding enrolment procedure.

Visiting residency status =The visiting residency status allows the trainee direct contact with patients; especially in the field of surgery. The enrolment procedure for practitioners varies for each Clinical Training Centre.

Duration

3 months or 6 months, depending on the educational programme required.

Grant

ESO will refund travel costs (economy fare, from location of residence to the location of the training centre and return) and a grant of:

EUR 2.000 gross per month

Costs related to Medical Council’s Registration is to be covered by the student.
Accommodation is not provided and is to be arranged by the trainee.

ESCO

Being selected to take part in an ESO CTC Fellowship is one of the ESO activities that makes you eligible to enrol in the College of the European School of Oncology (ESCO). Enrolling in ESCO gives you access to advanced career resources and opportunities to build meaningful networks. Find out more about ESCO benefits or how to join.

A Fellowship placement also enables ESCO members to earn ESCO credits and therefore access more ESCO benefits.

A 3 month Fellowship = 120 ESCO credits
A 6 month Fellowship = 240 ESCO credits.

Each year, four ESCO Fellows or Graduates will be given priority selection for ESO CTC Fellowship placements.

Visit www.esco.org for information on how to enrol.

Application for 2026 will open on June 2025

Please ensure you read these instructions carefully before your start the online application process.

In order to apply for the CTC programme you are required to complete the online application (please follow the steps below) and provide the documents listed below. You will need to prepare these documents in advance to upload during the online application.

All documents should be in English or have an English translation if necessary. Required documents:

• A letter of request indicating the programme and the centre for which the application is submitted. The letter must include the aims and goals of the training period, the plans for development after the training period, the requested duration (3 or 6 months) and the preferred training period.
• Curriculum vitae with list of publications
• Proof of specialist training in oncology or letter from hospital stating when you finish your specialisation, (original version and please include English translation if necessary)
• Copy of original medical school diploma with English translation if necessary
• A letter of permission from your current head of department giving you leave from the institution upon acceptance
• A letter of support from your mentor

Online application step by step:

Step 1: Click on the APPLY NOW button below to login to your account or to create a new account

Step 2: Complete the first three stages of the application with your personal information

Step 3: When you arrive to the Fellowship section you will be asked to confirm if you are specialised and when you specialised (only those who have specialised within the last five years or will complete their specialisation by the start of the training period are eligible for a Fellowship)

Step 4: Add Fellowship Choice. Select the centre/ programme you wish to apply for and the length of training period (3 or 6 months)

Please ensure you have read through the ‘Clinical Training Centres’ pages on the ESO website carefully before you start applying.

Step 5: In the section 'Attachment' please upload the 5 requested documents (listed above). All 5 documents are obligatory. You must include the original certificates + English translation (if necessary)

Step 6: Ensure your personal details in your account are up to date

Step 7: When you are sure everything has been updated, completed, uploaded and is correct press the 'Submit' button

Only applications that have been submitted with all required documents and by the deadline will be considered.

Criteria

There is a limited number of Fellowship grants available so only physicians who meet the following criteria are eligible for a Fellowship:

• Doctors who have specialised within the last 5 years or will complete their specialisation by the start of the Fellowship period
• Doctors from the following areas: Europe, Mediterranean countries and Latin America
• Those who have taken part in at least 1 ESO event (conference, course, Masterclass, etc) or at least 5 e-ESO sessions (e-eso.net)

NOTE: Our application system will automatically recognise whether you have taken part in an ESO event/ e-ESO e-Sessions.

Your e-ESO viewing history is automatically recorded if you have registered and logged on to the e-ESO website when you view the e-Sessions, so please ensure you do this.

You can participate in either a Live or Recorded e-Session and you will need to complete the evaluation questionnaire at the end of viewing in order for the system to register your participation. The system will consider the number of e-ESO certificates that your account has collected.

Downloading of slides from past events is not considered a completed e-Session and is therefore not eligible for enrolment.

Selection

A pre-selection will be made by ESO on a competitive basis from the submitted applications.
The host institute will then receive application documents from the pre-selected candidates and will decide whether or not to proceed with an interview.
Candidates will be informed whether they have been successful by ESO after all the interviews have been held.

Conditions

ESO bears no responsibility for untoward events in relation to the training programme.
Trainees are advised to take out their own personal, travel and professional insurance coverage.

It will be the responsibility of the trainee to pay any taxes that may be required by the home or host country. All doctors taking part in Fellowship in an Italian centre will be required to pay tax in Italy. The same applies for Italian doctors taking part in Fellowships in any centre.

Selected fellows will need to comply with existing Covid-19 regulations in the host country and CTC centre at the time of the arrival.

For further information, please contact Elena Fiore at efiore@eso.net. 

Congratulations to the following doctors who have been selected for a Clinical Training Center Fellowship in 2024.

	Octavio Al-Alam (Brazil) 6 months residency in Gynaecological Cancers programme Royal Marsden		Elvina Almuradova (Turkey) 6 months residency in Experimental Cancer Medicine Team Programme in Immune Oncology The Christie NHS Foundation Trust
	Manuel Arce von Herold (Costa Rica) 3 months residency in Gastrointestinal tumors Comprehensive Cancer Centre ULM		Mikayel Arustamyan (Armenia) 2 months residency in Radiation oncology European Institute of Oncology (IEO)
	Marius Furau (Romania) 3 months residency in Solid tumors treatment and palliative care Centre Hospital of South-Pest		Tinatini Liluashvili (Georgia) 3 months residency in Advanced Interventional Radiation Oncology and Proton Therapy Programme Clínica Universidad de Navarra
	Bertha Alejandra Martinez-Cannon (Mexico) 6 months residency in Gynaecological Cancers Royal Marsden		Loredana Mrak (Slovenia) 6 months residency in Lung Cancer Christie NHS Foundation Trust
	Abeid M. Athman Omar (Kenya) 3 months residency in Breast cancer European Institute of Oncology (IEO)		Sara Parola (Italy) 6 months residency in Solid tumors oncology Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland (IOSI)
	Daniela Sandu (Romania) 3 months residency in Training for the diagnosis and external radiotherapy treatment of H&N, pediatric, lung and SNC tumor Centre Leon Berard		Amalya Sargsyan (Armenia) 3 months residency in Adult soft tissue sarcomas, bone sarcomas and gastrointestinal stromal tumors INT - Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori
	Mihaela Stana (Romania) 3 months residency in Breast cancer  Champalimaud Clinical Centre

Congratulations to the following doctors who have been selected for a CTC Fellowship in 2024, thanks to the collaboration with St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.

Hussain Abdulla (Bahrain) 12 months residency in breast surgery

Roza Kaczorowska (Poland) 12 months residency in breast surgery

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