The NCCP is responsible for overseeing the development of national services for the treatment of cancer. These treatments include surgery, radiotherapy and systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT).
There are eight designated cancer centres for the provision of cancer surgery for adults. These are at Beaumont Hospital, Cork University Hospital, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, St. James's Hospital, St. Vincent's University Hospital, University Hospital Galway, University Hospital Limerick and University Hospital Waterford. The majority, but not all, cancer surgery takes place in the designated cancer centres. For breast cancer surgery, there is a satellite unit in Letterkenny General Hospital.
The NCCP works to ensure that designated cancer centres for individual tumour types have adequate case volumes, expertise and concentration of specialist skills, working in multidisciplinary teams to ensure the best outcome for patients.
The designated cancer centre for paediatric cancer is located at Childrens Health Ireland at Crumlin Hospital, working with other hospitals to provide cancer care for children around Ireland. Cancer services for adolescents and young adults are networked in CHI Crumlin, St. James's Hospital, University Hospital Galway and Cork University Hospital.
In addition to the nine designated cancer centres, a further 17 public hospitals provide systemic anti-cancer therapy for solid and haematological cancers (chemotherapy, immunotherapy etc.).
Radiation Oncology (radiotherapy) services are provided in the public sector in Dublin through the St. Luke's Radiation Oncology Network (Beaumont Hospital, St. James's Hospital and St. Luke's Hospital Rathgar), in Cork at Cork University Hospital and in Galway at University Hospital Galway.
The table below shows the designated cancer centre(s) in each HSE Health Region.
Read our frequently asked questions (FAQs) on cancer centres.
Page updated September 2023
