Medical clinic
Internal Medicine VIII
Medical Oncology and Pneumology

Pneumological Oncology / Lung Tumors

The Pneumological Oncology Department is responsible for all forms of cancer of the lungs, airways and pleura (pleural carcinomatosis). All diagnostic and personalized treatment measures are carried out within the framework of the Tübingen Lung Cancer Center, which is certified in accordance with the guidelines of the German Cancer Society (DKG). For this purpose, recommendations are developed in our specialist interdisciplinary tumor conference, which is composed of colleagues from pneumology, medical oncology, cardiothoracic surgery, radiotherapy, radiology, palliative medicine and pathology.

The interdisciplinary Sarcoma Center in Tübingen is one of the centers for soft tissue sarcomas certified in Germany according to the guidelines of the German Cancer Society (DKG).

The certificate as PDF

Soft Tissue Sarcomas, Bone Tumors and Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GIST)

Medical Oncology (Dept. of Internal Medicine VIII) is the main department of the German Cancer Society (DKG) certified Center for Soft Tissue Sarcomas, GIST and Bone Tumors (ZWS), which is one of the largest sarcoma centers in Germany and is part of the Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) Tübingen-Stuttgart.

At the Sarcoma Center Tübingen we work together with all experts of the University Hospital Tübingen as well as the BG Clinic Tübingen in an interdisciplinary way. Patient cases are discussed weekly on Mondays in the sarcoma tumor conference in the expert group of the ZWS. On this basis, we make important contributions to "personalized oncology" so that we can offer each patient the best individual diagnosis and therapy. A special focus is the generation of molecular genetic profiles (so-called tumor genome sequencing) as well as the facilitation of novel molecular and immunological therapies.

What are sarcomas?

Patient registration

Neuro-Endocrine Tumors

Medical Clinic VIII is the supporting department of the Center for Neuroendocrine Tumors (NET Center). The excellent potential for improved development of novel treatment options for NET tumors is bundled in a university center that is affiliated with the Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) Tübingen-Stuttgart. In interdisciplinary collaboration, we diagnose and treat patients with all forms of NET tumors.

What are neuroendocrine tumors?

Patient registration

NUT carcinomas

NUT carcinoma (NC) is a rare and highly aggressive tumor that occurs mainly in adolescents and young adults and is defined by the presence of a singular somatic rearrangement in the NUTM1 gene.

To date, standard treatment approaches such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery have been successful only in very rare, early-diagnosed cases with highly localized tumors. Targeted approaches, including epigenetic modulators such as so-called BET (iBET) and HDAC inhibitors (HDACi) have failed to improve this disastrous situation. Patients usually die within a few months.

Oncolytic viruses (OV) represent a novel approach that has not yet been tested for the treatment of NC. When using the virotherapeutic agent T-VEC (which has only been approved for melanoma as IMLYGIC®), NC cell lines were found to be highly susceptible and could be killed with great efficiency in the course of virotherapeutic treatment. In the treatment of a very first adult NC patient at UKT, T-VEC was not only very well tolerated, but also replicated at very high rates in the patient's NC tumor cells, leading to profound oncolysis. Treatment of additional NC patients at the UKT (one adult aged 23 years; one child aged 10 years (in collaboration with PD Dr. Ines Brecht from the University Children's Hospital Tübingen) also demonstrated both the safety and efficacy of T-VEC.

On this basis, we are currently initiating the world's first phase I study to investigate additive T-VEC immunoVirotherapy of NUT carcinomas as part of multimodal therapeutic regimens. To further enhance the antitumor immune response, the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab will be added to each application of T-VEC (as has already been done in all three UKT NC patients).

Other solid tumors

Interdisciplinary Oncological Colloquium (IOK)

Medical Oncology (Dept. of Internal Medicine VIII) hosts a special tumor conference to diagnose and treat other solid tumors in an interdisciplinary manner, such as thyroid carcinomas, thymic carcinomas, NUT carcinomas, CUP(cancer of unknown primary) carcinomas, and other rare cancers.