Welcoming address  

Medical studies are time-consuming and difficult. I am therefore all the more pleased to see students engaging in research and science, above and beyond the requirements of their compulsory courses. This is a commitment that bears fruit. With what is now the 21^st European Students Conference in Berlin, our doctors of the future have, once again this year, succeeded in organising the largest student biomedicine conference in Europe. Under the umbrella of the Charité, not only do they offer their fellow students a unique interdisciplinary platform for scientific exchange and personal interaction, but academics, professors and international research and working groups will be addressing the latest findings of medical science – this year, on the topic of 'cancer'. Oncological diseases are of major public health, health policy and economic significance. In Germany alone, a total of 426,800 cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2006.

Despite the fact that the survival chances and the quality of life have clearly improved for cancer patients in Germany since the 1970s, cancer continues to be the second most frequent cause of death after cardiovascular disease. This is why German health care policy has awarded great importance to cancer control for many years now. In June 2008, the Federal Ministry of Health joined with the German Cancer Society, the German Cancer Aid and the Joint Working Group of German Tumour Centres, to initiate the National Cancer Plan. The objective of the Cancer Plan is, above all, to improve the early detection of cancer and the care provided for cancer patients in Germany.  Cancer control must be the task of society as a whole and of all generations. I am therefore all the more gratified to see that, in the coming days, you, both the future and the already established experts, will be discussing issues of great importance – from prevention, through basic research, treatment strategies and therapy options, to the health economic aspects of this disease. I wish all of the participants in this 21^st European Students Conference the enthusiasm and the strength to continue on their path together. Only with your support will we be able to maintain our system of social values at a high level, well into the future.