The Mission and Aims of the MTCC are:

• to reduce cancer incidence and mortality, especially of advanced disease, in the Mediterranean area through collaborative efforts by influencing policy, promoting networking, and providing services and programs in a multidisciplinary approach directed toward comprehensive cancer prevention and control 

• to promote the collection and use of information for professional and public education

• to increase the proportion of Mediterranean citizens who have access to state-of-art cancer diagnoses, treatments, and palliative care

• to influence policies and promote programs and activities to eliminate disparities in cancer control in relation to gender, race, ethnicity, insurance and socio-economic status, and place of residence.

Several meetings were already organized:

1st  MTCC Meeting, Taormina (Italy) - October 4th 2005

2nd MTCC Meeting, Istanbul (Turkey) - January 28-29, 2006

3rd  MTCC Foundation Meeting , Roma (Italy) - February 2 and 3, 2007

4th  MTCC Meeting, Dead Sea (Jordan) - November 2, 2007

5th  MTCC Meeting, Split (Croatia) - March 8, 2008

6th MTCC Meeting, Tunis (Tunisia) - November 15, 2008

7th MTCC Meeting, Marrakech (Morocco) - April 24, 2009

8th MTCC Meeting, Istanbul (Turkey) - April 5, 2010



 The third foundation meeting of the MTCC took place in Roma on February 2 and 3, 2007 where the Executive Council and several Committees were established.

The Opening Ceremony, held at the Capitol Hill, was attended by several Italian authorities, including the Rector of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” Professor Renato Guarini,

and guests of honour were H.R.H. Princesses Ghida Talal and Dina Mired of Jordan, Princess Ghida, President of the King Kussein Cancer Foundation in Amman, delivered an intense emotional speech (Speech Princess MTCC Rome) highlighting the inequalities in the fight against cancer in the Mediterranean area and the need of common actions by the Governments,

the medical community and advocacy groups to promote prevention, earlier diagnoses and adequate treatments and the urgent need of educational initiatives aimed at the population (the full text is available on request).

At the MTCC business meeting several priority initiatives were discussed by the Delegates of more than 20 Mediterranean countries.

Among them:

 the need to get precise epidemiological data in order to aim interventions tailored to the situation in the individual countries;

 the implementation of a survey of the facilities for the fight against cancer, with the publication of a reference booklet to be diffused at country level, in the national language, together with educational messages stressing the concept that today “cancer is a preventable and treatable disease”

 the development of an interactive website, where an interchange of images (histology, radiology, endoscopy) may benefit doctors with a “real time” consultation with colleagues of other institutions and countries on difficult cases;

 the interaction with an ongoing research program managed by CINBO on hereditary breast cancer, a problem clearly affecting the female population of the South East Mediterranean where an important percentage of this malignancy is affecting younger women.

 A special emphasis was devoted to the topic in the MTCC By-Laws dealing with the implementation of National Chapters, intended to convene in every participating country health authorities, doctors and advocacy groups working together to fulfill the mission of MTCC.

These National Chapters will be the backbone of the organization, the real working teams which may succeed in convening the actions in the health network of the country.
           
A short time was devoted by the Delegates to a visit to the Capitol Hill Museum, where the glories and history of the past clearly outlined the concept of the Mediterranean as a common cultural identity.