Introduction
From a medical perspective, the unification of Europe has resulted in an increasing number of physicians crossing borders and practising in different countries. In order to ensure and maintain a high quality of healthcare across Europe, the European Union (EU) has demonstrated its intent to achieve harmoni- sation of medical education and training. The EU implemented recognition of diplomas and certificates of qualification in medicine in all member countries through a European Parliament directive on the recognition of professional qualifications issued in 2005 [1]. The goal is to achieve high-quality patient care across Europe. At postgraduate level and later career stages, this will only be possible if knowledge and skills levels are more uniform. This holds true for thoracic oncology, which is a growing discipline. Lung cancer is currently the deadliest malignant disease worldwide. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is the most frequent and deadly occupational cancer. However, there have been important recent advances in our understanding of thoracic tumour biology, resulting in better imaging and sampling techniques, better tumour tissue characterisation and the development of promising new therapies.
The European Respiratory Society (ERS) has recognised these developments and has created the thoracic oncology assembly. The “Thoracic Oncology Action Plan” has been published in the ERJ [2]. The plan includes forming a Task Force for a European initiative for quality management in lung cancer care, the development of a network with other assemblies and an educational programme with the aim of improving the training of thoracic oncology specialists. Thoracic oncol- ogy is an expanding subspecialty that requires the participation of surgeons, radiation oncologists, respiratory physicians, oncolo- gists, pathologists and radiologists among others. Collaboration between different spe- cialists is essential in the management of thoracic tumours. However, training in thor- acic oncology is not well defined in the various …
