{"entity":{"id":"swiss-cancer-institute","kind":"company","name":"Swiss Cancer Institute (formerly SAKK)","aka":["SAKK","Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research","Schweizerische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Klinische Krebsforschung","Groupe Suisse de Recherche Clinique sur le Cancer","Swiss Cancer Institute"],"tldr":"Switzerland's national academic cancer trials group, known until July 2025 as SAKK. Its member hospitals, every university hospital and the country's leading hospitals, reach about 80 per cent of the country's cancer patients.","summary":"The Swiss Cancer Institute is the non-profit organisation that runs independent, multicentre clinical cancer trials in Switzerland across all cancer types and specialties. It describes more than 60 years of work, and on 1 July 2025 it changed its name from SAKK (Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research) to Swiss Cancer Institute, with the same management and with existing contracts unchanged. Its members are all the Swiss university hospitals and leading hospitals, a network it says reaches about 80 per cent of cancer patients in the country, and it coordinates practically all the trials of international academic groups that run in Switzerland.\n\nIt is recognised by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) as a research institution of national importance and is funded under a performance agreement based on Article 15a of the Research and Innovation Promotion Act. The board is chaired by Viviane Hess, a medical oncologist at University Hospital Basel; the chief executive is Vincent Gruntz. Trials registered under its name include SAKK 16/00, which showed that adding radiotherapy to induction chemotherapy before surgery did not improve event-free survival in stage IIIA/N2 non-small-cell lung cancer, and the SAKK 75/08 oesophageal cancer trial.","asOf":"2026-11-03","links":[{"label":"Swiss Cancer Institute: about (German)","url":"https://www.swisscancerinstitute.ch/de/ueber-uns/ueber-swiss-cancer-institute/"},{"label":"Press release: from SAKK to Swiss Cancer Institute (1 July 2025, PDF)","url":"https://www.swisscancerinstitute.ch/media/1rrpazo0/mm_sakk_swisscancerinstitute_de.pdf"},{"label":"Q&A on the renaming (PDF)","url":"https://www.swisscancerinstitute.ch/media/cbcdnfxj/qa_renaming_mediencorner_en.pdf"}],"tags":["cooperative-group"],"related":[],"cancers":["nsclc","esophageal"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":["etop-ibcsg","ielsg"],"institutions":["usb-basel","inselspital-bern","usz-zurich","chuv-lausanne","hug-geneva","iosi-bellinzona"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":["sakk-16-00","nct06358573"],"people":["viviane-hess"],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":["paper-pless-sakk-16-00-induction-chemoradiation-lancet-2015"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":["Renamed from SAKK on 1 July 2025","SERI performance agreement (FIFG Article 15a)","SAKK 16/00 (NCT00030771), stage IIIA/N2 NSCLC","Patient council"],"hq":"Bern","country":"CH","companyType":"cooperative-group","website":"https://www.swisscancerinstitute.ch","investors":[],"funding":[]},"route":"/companies/swiss-cancer-institute/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"nsclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Non-small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/nsclc/"},{"id":"esophageal","kind":"cancer","name":"Oesophageal cancer","route":"/cancers/esophageal/"}],"company":[{"id":"etop-ibcsg","kind":"company","name":"ETOP IBCSG Partners Foundation","route":"/companies/etop-ibcsg/"},{"id":"ielsg","kind":"company","name":"International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group","route":"/companies/ielsg/"}],"institution":[{"id":"hug-geneva","kind":"institution","name":"Geneva University Hospitals (HUG)","route":"/institutions/hug-geneva/"},{"id":"inselspital-bern","kind":"institution","name":"Inselspital, Bern University Hospital / University Cancer Center Inselspital","route":"/institutions/inselspital-bern/"},{"id":"chuv-lausanne","kind":"institution","name":"Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) / Ludwig Institute Lausanne","route":"/institutions/chuv-lausanne/"},{"id":"iosi-bellinzona","kind":"institution","name":"Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland (IOSI)","route":"/institutions/iosi-bellinzona/"},{"id":"usb-basel","kind":"institution","name":"University Hospital Basel / Tumour Centre","route":"/institutions/usb-basel/"},{"id":"usz-zurich","kind":"institution","name":"University Hospital Zurich / Comprehensive Cancer Center Zurich","route":"/institutions/usz-zurich/"}],"trial":[{"id":"nct06358573","kind":"trial","name":"Intratumoral INT230-6 Followed by Neoadjuvant Immuno-chemotherapy in Patients With Early TNBC. INVINCIBLE-4-SAKK","route":"/trials/nct06358573/"},{"id":"sakk-16-00","kind":"trial","name":"SAKK 16/00","route":"/trials/sakk-16-00/"}],"person":[{"id":"viviane-hess","kind":"person","name":"Viviane Hess","route":"/people/viviane-hess/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-pless-sakk-16-00-induction-chemoradiation-lancet-2015","kind":"paper","name":"Induction chemoradiation in stage IIIA/N2 non-small-cell lung cancer: a phase 3 randomised trial (SAKK 16/00)","route":"/key-papers/paper-pless-sakk-16-00-induction-chemoradiation-lancet-2015/"}]}}