37.6% of all the papers published by the ICO (the Catalan Institute of Oncology) are part of the 10% most quoted science papers worldwide.

The Catalan Institute of Oncology is the hospital centre in Spain with the most excellence research, as it can be deduced from the last and recently published SCImago Institutions Ranking World Report 2011.  

This report is now available on www.scimagoir.com and analyses the research conducted by more than 3,000 institutions around the world.  

Publications in reference journals

According to the data provided by the SCImago Institutions Ranking World Report 2011, the ICO published 953 scientific articles in the period 2005-2009 and over half of these were made in collaboration with other institutes abroad.  

The report also shows that over 70% of these articles were published in the most influential journals, to be more precise in the journals included in the first quartile (the first 25%) of the most prestigious of this field. 

Research at the ICO

The Catalan Institute of Oncology is a public and monographic institution of cancer, with a comprehensive approach that includes disease prevention, medical attention, research and specialized training. It consists of three major medical centres located in L’Hospitalet, Girona and Badalona, working together with university hospitals in the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS): the Hospital of Bellvitge, Dr. Josep Trueta Hospital and Germans Trias I Pujol Hospital. Therefore, research is organized through three research foundations: the IDIBELL (L’Hospitalet de Llobregat), the IDIBGi (Girona) and the FGTiP (Badalona). In 2010 the ICO published over 300 articles with a total impact factor of 1840 and an average impact factor of 5.79.

At the ICO research is carried out on everything that has to do with cancer, from understanding the cause of this disease to finding new and more effective treatments. It also conducts research in the fields of prevention, nursing, psycho-oncology and social work. The research is divided into three main areas:

• Epidemiological research: population studies based on the factors that increase or decrease the risk of cancer.

• Translational research: research to understand the mechanisms used by cancer to survive and find new ways to beat it, always with the aim of moving the results to the patient’s treatment.

• Clinical research: clinical trials of new anticancer drugs.