Can Antwerp’s planned Oncopolis bring cancer research closer to patients?
The University of Antwerp and Antwerp University Hospital plan to establish a cancer-research centre called Oncopolis on the UZA campus in Edegem, using a substantial private bequest as initial funding while seeking additional investors.
In 30 seconds
- Oncopolis aims to develop personalized treatments based on individual patient needs.
- It is backed by a substantial private bequest but still requires additional investors for full implementation.
- The centre plans to include clinical facilities and spaces for patients, fostering closer collaboration between researchers, clinicians, and patients.
The and University Hospital (UZA) plan to establish Oncopolis, a new cancer-research centre on the hospital campus in Edegem, after a former neighbour of cancer specialist Professor Filip Lardon left money to his research. Lardon told Het Nieuwsblad that the bequest has been settled and the location selected, although further investment is still needed before the full plan can be realised.
The centre is intended to house the more than 50 researchers currently working within the University of Antwerp’s Centre for Oncological Research, known as CORE. According to Lardon’s account, Oncopolis would also include clinical facilities and space for patients, bringing laboratory researchers, clinicians and people living with cancer into closer contact. No total budget, construction timetable or opening date has yet been disclosed.
For patients in Antwerp and the wider region, that proximity could matter. CORE describes its central aim as developing personalised treatments—the right therapy for the right patient at the right time—while UZA already operates early-phase clinical research through its University Center for Clinical Research Antwerp, or UNICCRA. UZA says most of its phase-one studies currently involve oncology patients and that the unit was designed to give more people access to experimental treatments before those treatments reach routine care.
Oncopolis would therefore not start from an empty site intellectually, even if its future building remains at the planning stage. The Antwerp institutions already work on immunotherapy, tumour markers, organoid models and experimental plasma-based approaches, according to CORE. Since 2021, CORE, UZA and associated laboratories have also operated a patient advisory committee whose members include patients, survivors, carers and representatives of Flemish patient organisations. The committee reviews proposed studies and helps researchers communicate in accessible language.
That patient-facing model reflects a wider shift. The ’s Cancer Mission says research should connect understanding, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and quality of life, with citizen participation and accessibility running across those priorities. Its stated ambition is to improve the lives of more than three million people affected by cancer by 2030. In that sense, Oncopolis fits an EU approach that treats cancer centres as bridges between discovery, clinical trials and lived experience rather than as laboratories operating in isolation.
The need is substantial. The Belgian Cancer Registry recorded 77,344 new cancer diagnoses in 2023, one third more than in 2004, while its 2026 projections suggest the annual number could rise to about 93,330 by 2035. The OECD and European Commission’s 2025 country profile also found Belgian cancer incidence above the EU average, although Belgium’s cancer mortality rate was below the EU average and had fallen faster over the preceding decade.
Where this is happening
View on map Antwerp →There are nevertheless two distinct ways to read the announcement. Lardon and the Antwerp institutions present physical concentration as a way to shorten the distance between researchers, clinicians and patients. The European Commission similarly argues that coordinated cancer infrastructures can achieve more than isolated local efforts. A more cautious reading follows from the project’s incomplete financing: a generous legacy can launch an ambition, but a durable research centre also requires recurring staff funding, equipment, governance and reliable access for patients. Neither UZA nor the University of Antwerp has yet published those operational details.
The name deliberately echoes Vaccinopolis, the Antwerp vaccine-testing centre associated with Professor Pierre Van Damme. But Oncopolis should not yet be understood as an operational equivalent: the confirmed development is a funded plan with a chosen site, not a completed facility. The next test will be whether the partners disclose a financing package, construction schedule and precise relationship with CORE, UZA’s oncology services and UNICCRA. Until then, the bequest has created a credible opening for a new centre, while its eventual scale and patient benefit remain to be demonstrated.
What to do
Patients cannot yet enrol through Oncopolis because it is not operational. People interested in current cancer studies should continue using established UZA and UNICCRA channels; prospective donors or research partners should seek formal project documentation before treating the plan as fully financed.
Impact
Regional — The project could strengthen the Antwerp clinical-research cluster and give patients in Flanders another point of contact with translational research and early-stage studies. Access criteria and the centre’s relationship with hospitals outside Antwerp are not yet known.
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Voices & reactions
What the main actors are doing
Reported positions, summarised — not direct quotationsAntwerp researchers and clinicians
Professor Filip Lardon and the participating Antwerp institutions frame Oncopolis as a way to reduce the distance between laboratory science, clinical practice and patient experience. Their model emphasises personalised medicine and earlier feedback between the people designing studies and those receiving care.
EU coordination and access perspective
The European Commission’s Cancer Mission supports integrated cancer infrastructures but stresses that local centres must connect research, prevention, treatment, quality of life and equitable access. From this perspective, a building is valuable only if it participates in wider networks and produces benefits that reach eligible patients beyond one institution.
Funding and delivery perspective
The disclosed bequest establishes initial momentum, but the search for further investors shows that Oncopolis is not yet fully financed. Without a published budget, schedule or operating model, claims about its eventual capacity and patient impact remain prospective.
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This story was assembled from verified evidence, with its sources and reasoning recorded as it was written.