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ONCOlleg
Become a patient ambassador—a program for (former) cancer patients and their caregivers
Would you like to become part of our community? More than 40 patient ambassadors are already working with us on various care and research projects.
To prepare you as thoroughly as possible, we have developed the ONCOlleg program for training patient ambassadors in oncology in collaboration with the University Cancer Centers Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein.
Apply now! Season 4 starts in November 2025.
Training to become a patient ambassador
Are you a (former) cancer patient or relative of a cancer patient and interested in training to become a patient ambassador?
The training comprises 10 units consisting of in-person and online modules from November 2025 to April 2026. We would like to give you an insight into the two Cancer Centers in Hamburg and Kiel, so we will visit the university hospitals in Hamburg, Kiel, and Lübeck.
We have summarized all the important information for you in the following handout.
To train as a patient ambassador, you must sign a contract with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.
The patient participation officer,
After the training, you will have the opportunity to exchange ideas with each other and with us in the so-called BOA round. BOA stands for “Botschafteraustausch” (ambassador exchange), an abbreviation chosen by the patient ambassadors themselves.
What is important to us is that you set the pace! Each patient ambassador can decide for themselves whether and to what extent they want to participate in the collaboration.
We appreciate your interest!
Background: Patient advocates
The diverse developments in cancer research and cancer therapy in recent years have led to both an increasing importance of patient participation in personal therapy decisions and the involvement of patients in the evaluation of research concepts and strategic planning in healthcare on these topics.
Cancer research aims to cure more patients of cancer, prolong their lives, and improve their quality of life. This means that cancer research must be particularly focused on the needs of patients.
As current or former patients, they also have comprehensive and diverse experience of the complex effects of oncological diseases and oncological care on their everyday lives. With this experiential knowledge, patients contribute their perspective to the development of research questions and their implementation.
This complex personal experience of patients contrasts with the complex processes of modern molecular research projects, the difficult procedures of therapy studies, and multimodal treatment concepts. The complicated structure of the healthcare system with its various stakeholders also makes it difficult to involve patients as partners in decision-making.
In addition, the patients concerned have mainly dealt intensively with their own cancer and have not yet considered a wider range of oncological diseases to the same extent.
The aim of ONCOlleg is to enable committed and interested patients to become patient ambassadors in a structured training concept, enabling them to gain a more detailed understanding of the essential elements of research, clinical care, and the healthcare system in order to actively participate in the evaluation of scientific projects by public and government third-party funding agencies and to advise scientists and clinicians on the development and implementation of cancer research projects and clinical trials from the perspective of those affected.
ONCOlleg also aims to enable interested graduates to participate in committees, professional associations, and healthcare organizations on the topic of cancer and cancer research in the long term, thereby helping to anchor and sustainably strengthen the patient perspective in these forums.
Participation in the ONCOlleg training program also provides an ideal foundation for long-term political engagement as a patient ambassador in the healthcare sector.
Political support
Patient participation in research is an important political demand. On September 27, 2021, the EU Council Presidency Trio issued a press release on this topic:
Furthermore, patient participation is a postulate of the National Decade Against Cancer:
We are very pleased that our ONCOlleg concept was also supported by the state governments of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein at its launch. Katharina Fegebank, then Senator for Science, Research, Equality, and Districts of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, and Karin Prien, then Minister for General and Vocational Education, Science, Research, and Culture of the State of Schleswig-Holstein, supported the project with welcoming remarks.
Steering Committee
University Cancer Center Hamburg (UCC Hamburg)
- Prof. Dr. Carsten Bokemeyer
- Avin Hell
- Prof. Dr. Isabelle Scholl
University Cancer Center Schleswig-Holstein (UCCSH)
- Prof. Dr. Anne Letsch
- Frederike Lüth
- Dr. Jana Rathje
ONCOlleg Patient Advisory Board
- Heide Lakemann (UCC Hamburg)
- Jürgen Martens (UCC Hamburg)
- Veronika Dörre (UCCSH)
- Martina Oppermann (UCCSH)
- Silvia Kleinebeckel (UCC Hamburg)
Funding is provided jointly by UCC Hamburg and UCCSH. The concept was coordinated with the patient representative of German Cancer Aid.
Photo: Axel Kirchof, UKE – The photo at the top of the page was taken during a photo shoot on the banks of the Elbe River with some of our patient ambassadors.
Further Information
Do you have any questions or would you like to make an appointment? Here you will find our contact details for UCC Hamburg.
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