Mission and values

The National Center of Oncological Hadrontherapy was born with the aim of treating radio-resistant or surgically inoperable tumours by means of protons and carbon ions, particles that belong to the category of hadrons. CNAO is also a Research and Development Centre whose activities range from radiobiological to translational clinical research, aimed at continuously improving treatment skills.

CNAO is excellence-oriented in the treatment of oncological pathologies through hadrontherapy, research and technological innovation.

Our values

• SENSE OF BELONGING
• RESPONSIBILITY EXAMPLE (CONSISTENT WITH OUR VALUES)
• STRIVING TO REACH THE OBJECTIVE
• MERITOCRACY
• PERSON-CENTRED APPROACH
• TREATMENT
• IMPLEMENTATION GROWING - DEVELOPMENT (PASSION FOR)
• GROUP (WORK AS A/ IN A)
• AVAILABILITY

Clinical activity

CNAO bases its work on some essential values in clinical practice:

• Personalised treatments. At CNAO, each clinical case is discussed by a multidisciplinary team that sets personalised treatment pathways. There is not a sole pathway, but rather treatments are modelled based on the history, needs, requirements and pathology of each patient.
• Caring for patients. When we take care of a patient, we not only build the most appropriate treatment for his clinical case, but we also take care of involving him in each stage of the process and provide him with the necessary tools so that he can face it as calm as possible. At CNAO there is a psychological support service for both the patient and his family.
• A bond of trust is build between the facility, its staff and patients with their families. Treating a tumour is a moment of great stress and worry for both the patient and his family. At each stage of this process, from activities to treatment, we ensure that patients and caregivers sees CNAO staff as a reference point that is capable of going beyond the limits of clinical practice.

Research activities

In addition to actively dealing with hadrontherapy treatments, CNAO is also a Research and Development Centre whose activities range from radiobiological to translational clinical research, aimed at continuously improving treatment skills.
Investing in research activities is essential to keep CNAO at the forefront and have the most advanced therapeutic tools. This is also one of our main business objectives.
There are several research projects on which we are working: in fact, our activities range from enhancing the synchrotron, which requires time and effort at the control room in order to make it more and more efficient, to measuring the treatment beam position in real time.