UICC congratulates Dr Christian Wittekind on receiving a lifetime achievement award from the German Cancer Society.

The UICC Geneva team is proud to share with you the news that Dr Christian Wittekind has been awarded the Karl Heinrich Bauer Medal by the German Cancer Society for his outstanding contribution to cancer medicine. Dr Wittekind was recognised in particular for his work on the TNM classification of malignant tumours, both at national and international level. Click here for more information on TNM.

A pathologist by training, Dr Wittekind is Professor and a Head of the Institute of Pathology at Leipzig University Hospital. Dr Wittekind has been contributing his expertise as a member of UICC TNM Core Committee and UICC TNM Prognostic Factors Committee since 1993 and the Chairman of the German TNM Committee since 2006.

Co-Chair of the UICC TNM committee Dr Mary Gospodarowicz remarks “Christian has been a long term member of the UICC TNM Project and an editor of the UICC TNM Classification of Malignant Tumours, currently in its 8th edition. In addition, he is the editor of the TNM Atlas and TNM Supplement. Dr Wittekind is also responsible for the UICC TNM helpdesk where he answers hundreds of TNM related questions submitted by pathologists and other cancer specialists from all over the world. His contribution to cancer staging is enormous. I am delighted to hear that he received the Karl Heinrich Bauer Medal, most deserved award and recognition of Christians’ contributions”.

“On behalf of UICC’s board of Director and member organisations I would like to congratulate Dr Wittekind on the award and thank him for his continued support. TNM is at the core of UICC’s commitment to increase equity in cancer control, ensuring that the latest knowledge on anatomic cancer staging is made available worldwide. For more than 50 years, the TNM programme has been made possible thanks to the commitment and voluntary contributions of internationally renowned experts such as Dr Wittekind” said Cary Adams, CEO of UICC.

The Karl Heinrich Bauer medal

With this award, the German Cancer Society wishes to keep alive the memory of Karl Heinrich Bauer, professor of the Surgical Clinic in Heidelberg and founder of the German Cancer Research Centre. The prize has been awarded since 1994.

The German Cancer Society

A long-term UICC member organisation, the German Cancer Society (DKG) founded in 1900 is the largest scientific-oncological organisation in German-speaking countries. The German Cancer Society includes more than 7,600 individual scientific members organized in 24 working groups, 16 regional cancer societies and 34 sponsors from research-based pharmaceutical industries, scientific publishers and health insurances.  All DKG’s members are active in the research and treatment of cancer with the aim to address a joint goal: the fight against cancer. In the DKG is also a co-initiator of the National Cancer Plan.