Medical Oncology was born of the need to cover the various medical implications of cancer, as distinct from its surgical and radiotherapeutic implications, which were recognized years before the specialty of Medical Oncology was officially recognized in Spain, in 1978. 

The specialty focuses on looking after cancer patients from the moment they are diagnosed throughout treatment and monitoring until they are cured or throughout the terminal phase of the illness.  The specialty plays an active role in providing the emotional, social and psychological that patients and their families require. 

Comprehensive Care

Cancer patients have complex physical, psychological and social needs that must be adequately met.  Even for patients who have been "cured" or are in complete remission, quality of life studies show the presence of physical and psychological-emotional symptoms that disrupt their normal lives.

The complexity of cancer patients makes it necessary to approach their medical care on two different levels:  multidisciplinary, with the best results obtained by correctly applying different therapies; and comprehensive, which implies focusing efforts on the patient and their family.

This same therapeutic complexity combined with the technological progress made in recent decades, has led to the Oncology Service at Hospitales Universitarios San Roque in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to incorporate strategies aimed at confronting the challenge of treating these patients: examining cases in the tumor board; clinical practice guidelines; examining patients in interconsultations with other medical disciplines; technological modernization as per to clinical evidence; and operating the Service as a  comprehensive care unit for cancer patients with functional Medical Oncology and Radiation Oncology units and hereditary cancer and genetic counseling units.  Our Service does not just treat the disease: our treatments are aimed at avoiding the risk of cancer in the future.