Slovenia
Center of Excellence
Faculty
Tanja Cufer
is a medical oncologist, Professor of Oncology at the Medical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and a Senior Councillor at the University Clinic Golnik, Slovenia. Dr Čufer gained her medical degree and PhD in oncology from the University of Ljubljana and subsequently completed her fellowship at Stanford University, California, USA and The Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Dr Čufer is very active in various national and international societies. She has been an ASCO member since 1996 and she has been serving as an ASCO International Affairs Committee (IAC) member since 2007. She was the chair of ASCO’s International Clinical Trials Workshops working group and also ASCO’s IAC from 2011–2012. From 1987 she has been an active member of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Breast Cancer Group and Lung Cancer Group and from 2009–2012 she chaired the EORTC Breast Cancer Group. In the period of 2006–2009 she served as a member of the EORTC board. Currently, Dr Čufer is ESO (European School of Oncology) programme coordinator for the Eastern Europe and Balkan region. She is also a member of several editorial boards and a reviewer for numerous international medical journals.
Dr Čufer’s major scientific interests are breast cancer, lung cancer and the molecular biology of cancer. She plays an active role in new drug development and academic research in oncology, and she has been the principal investigator in more than 20 multinational clinical trials. Dr Čufer received a lifetime achievement award from the Medical Chamber of Slovenia in 2011. Her professional work has resulted in almost 20 invited lectures at many prestigious oncology conferences and she is the author of more than 200 articles, books and book chapters in the field of oncology.
Faculty
Bostjan Seruga
Asoc. Prof. Boštjan Šeruga, MD, PhD is medical oncologist currently employed at the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana and University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His main clinical interests are breast and genitourinary cancers. From 2007-2010 he was a clinical research fellow at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada. In the near past he collaborated with the European School of Oncology (ESO) and International Clinical Trial Working Group at the ASCO. Dr. Šeruga’s research interests include health services research and study od prognostic and predictive biomarkers in solid cancers. He is a co-author of numerous publications, including publications in high-impact oncology journals.with over 4000 citations to date.
Urska Janzic
is a resident of Medical Oncology in her final year of training at the University Clinic Golnik, Slovenia, where she works and studies under the mentorship of prof. Tanja Cufer, MD, PhD.
Dr. Janzic gained her medical degree at the Medical faculty, University of Ljubljana and thereafter started her medical oncology training. In 2017, she successfully passed the ESMO exam.
Dr. Janzic also proved to be an active member of several scientific societies. She is a junior member of ESMO, ASCO and IASLC. She is also a national representative of Medical Oncology Fellows in Slovenia since 2015, being very active in initiatives supporting a transfer of updated global ESMO/ASCO curriculum into the national medical oncology curriculum. She has been introduced in several academic EORTC trials under mentorship, thus already gaining basic knowledge in clinical research. Results of her own research are several abstract presented at the international meetings, such as ELCC and a paper published in the international peer reviewed journal.
Her main interest of work is focused in thoracic malignancies and breast cancer. Dr. Janzic research objectives are focused on immunotherapy biomarker research, cancer drugs accessibility and availability in her country and broader in Europe in addition to being actively involved in Lung Cancer Registry at University Clinic Golnik.
Associated Center – Ljubljana
Maja Cemazar
obtained her PhD in basic medical sciences from the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Medicine in 1998. She was a post-doctoral fellow and a researcher at the Gray Cancer Institute from 1999-2001. In 2004 she was working at the Institute of Pharmacology and Structural Biology as an associate researcher. Currently, she works at the Department of Experimental Oncology, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana and at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Primorska. She is a lecturer in under and post-graduate courses of Cell and Tumor biology. Her main research interest is in the field of gene electrotransfer – electrogene therapy. She is developing different treatment approaches by utilizing therapeutic genes targeting either tumor angiogenesis or stimulating immune response. She is a member of different national and international societies and a member of the National Ethical Committee for animal experimentation at the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning and a member of National scientific committee for deliberate release of the GMO Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning. In addition, she serves as a member of Editorial board of several international peer-reviewed journals and is a Deputy Editor of the journal Radiology and Oncology. In 2006 she received the Award of the Republic of Slovenia for important achievements in the scientific research and development in the field of experimental oncology. She was a supervisor of 8 PhD students, and more than 20 BSc theses. She is the author of more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Cvetka Grašič-Kuhar
Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Department Medical Oncology, Zaloška 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Medical oncologist, ESMO exam in 2008, ESMO MORA 2013
Specialized in breast cancer, head and neck cancers including thyroid
Mentor of 2 trainees in medical oncology and of 3 students doing student’s research work