High-quality care: NCT/UCC Dresden certified as a nutritional medicine center
Nutrition is an essential part of cancer treatment, as it has a significant influence on the course of the disease, the tolerability of the therapy and the quality of life. Structured, nutritional therapy by qualified specialists helps to prevent malnutrition, can improve the patients’ response to therapies, reduce side effects, strengthen the immune system and improve their general well-being.
The National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT/UCC) Dresden has now been certified as a nutritional medicine focus center according to nutriZert . This accolade officially confirms the high quality of nutritional medicine, the interdisciplinary cooperation as well as the structured care of patients, catering to their nutritional medical treatment needs. The NCT/UCC Dresden is one of the few institutions in eastern Germany that can proudly boast this certification.
"For our patients, this certification makes it immediately clear that a qualified nutrition team consisting of nutritionists and specially trained doctors is available at the NCT/UCC Dresden," explains PD Dr. Christine Hofbauer, medical director of the nutrition team at the NCT/UCC Dresden. "It is a crucial milestone for our department and, at the same time, a confirmation of our daily work."
The organ cancer center, as part of the Oncology Center, demonstrably meets all the required structural, personnel and content-related criteria for ensuring a treatment approach that includes qualified nutritional therapy. This involves a multi-professional treatment team, standardized nutritional medical treatment paths and a close cooperation between medicine, nursing, dietetics and other therapeutic disciplines. With this certified focus center, the NCT/UCC Dresden strengthens not only its medical profile, but also the regional healthcare landscape. The consistent expansion of therapies as well as the offer of regular further and advanced training mean that it is being continuously developed.
"Our aim is to provide patients afflicted with complex, particularly oncological diseases with the best possible individualized care," explains Antonia Albers, a member of the nutritionist team. Especially following complex surgical procedures on the gastrointestinal tract or if side effects arise during systemic oncological therapies, nutritional advice is a key component in sustainably improving the patient’s prognosis and quality of life.
Bärbel Schädlich, who had to undergo surgery for a tumor in her small intestine at the end of 2025, recounts: "During my inpatient stay, I was assigned a nutritionist who afforded me a deeper insight into the necessary dietary changes. Together, we drew up a menu for my main meals and snacks. Due to the threat of malnutrition, it was important to support my intestines in extracting as many nutrients as possible from food. The nutritional therapy supported me immensely. I am extremely grateful for this.
Cancer patients at the NCT/UCC Dresden are cared for by a multi-professional team from the fields of oecotrophology, nutritional science, nursing and nutritional medicine. Treatment begins with screening for malnutrition. Based on these results and the medical diagnosis, a targeted nutrition therapy is designed to circumvent malnutrition, alleviate symptoms and improve meal and food tolerance. "We strive to support patients overall in stabilizing their body weight and improving their quality of life, all the while ameliorating their tolerance to therapy," says Antonia Albers.
"In view of the growing importance of nutritional medicine in the treatment of acute and chronic diseases, this award is a clear signal of quality and patient safety at the University Hospital Dresden," said Prof. Uwe Platzbecker, Medical Director of the University Hospital, congratulating the team on this achievement.
In addition to nutritional counseling and therapy, the horizons of scientific research are also being expanded at the NCT/UCC Dresden. One important focus is on the interaction between nutrition, the gut microbiome and the immune system. In the field of immunotherapy for malignant melanoma (aggressive skin cancer), it has been shown that a diet rich in fiber is associated with a better tolerance to therapy and a longer, progression-free life. This approach is also to be investigated with regards to other illnesses and forms of therapy in the future. The intestinal microbiome evidently also plays an central role in CAR-T cell therapy as a form of immunotherapy. Future studies should therefore investigate how a high-fiber diet can be implemented for patients and what influence it can have on the microbiome and, as a knock-on effect, on the success of treatment.
"Nutritional medicine is a very dynamic scientific field, especially in oncology. This certification strengthens our visibility as a research hub and creates an important basis for quickly transferring new findings into clinical practice," explains Prof. Esther Troost, Dean of TU Dresden’s Faculty of Medicine.
Research contact:
Dr. Christine Hofbauer and Antonia Albers,
University Hospital Dresden’s Nutrition Team
ernaehrung(at)ukdd.de
Media contact:
Anne-Stephanie Vetter
Staff Unit Public Relations of the Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine of TUD Dresden University of Technology
National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT/UCC) Dresden
Tel.: +49 351 458 17903
Email: anne-stephanie.vetter(at)tu-dresden.de
www.tu-dresden.de/med
National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT/UCC) Dresden
The National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT/UCC) Dresden is a joint institution involving the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the Faculty of Medicine at TU Dresden, the Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital Dresden and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). The NCT Dresden is part of NCT, which has further sites in Berlin, Heidelberg, SouthWest (Tübingen-Stuttgart/Ulm), WERA (Würzburg, Erlangen, Regensburg, Augsburg) and West (Essen/Cologne).
The NCT is committed to rapidly and effectively integrating innovations in cancer research into clinical trials in order to successfully diagnose and treat cancer according to the latest research. Patients are research partners on an equal footing.