Semmelweis University’s Onco-Interventional Department has become the first centre in Hungary and in Central and Eastern Europe to receive accreditation from the International Accreditation System for Interventional Oncology Services (IASIOS). The recognition reflects years of clinical work in image-guided, minimally invasive cancer treatment and marks a significant step forward for the specialty’s development across the region.
Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary’s oldest medical school, with an unbroken history stretching back centuries, has reached an important milestone with this accreditation, the only global framework built specifically for interventional oncology services. This makes Semmelweis the first Accredited centre in both Hungary and the wider Central and Eastern European region, a recognition that reflects years of dedicated clinical work and a strong commitment to advancing patient care.
The department’s work centres on image-guided, minimally invasive procedures that complement surgery, radiation, drug therapy, gene therapy, and immunotherapy in oncologic care. Tissue biopsy remains the most frequently performed procedure, alongside embolization and cryo- and thermoablation. These techniques are most commonly applied to kidney and liver tumors, as well as kidney, liver, lung, and bone metastases, and the range of indications continues to expand as the field evolves.
Prof. Dr. Pál Ákos Deák, Head of the Onco-Interventional Department, spoke about what this recognition means for patients:
“Compared with conventional surgery, these procedures typically involve less pain, shorter hospital stays, often on a same-day basis, and a faster return to daily life.”
For Prof. Deák, though, the accreditation’s most exciting impact may lie in training the next generation. As he shared:
“This means that students here can master the most modern technologies and the strictest international safety standards during their university years, gaining competitive knowledge on the global market.”
This speaks directly to one of IASIOS’s founding aims: building an international network in which member institutions can benchmark their practice, exchange clinical experience, and pursue collaborative research together. Prof. Deák noted that Semmelweis’s place within this network now allows the Onco-Interventional Department to measure its work directly alongside leading clinics and hospitals abroad, a valuable opportunity for continued growth and exchange.
The Onco-Interventional Department currently performs around three thousand procedures each year, a number that continues to rise as interventional oncology takes on an ever-larger role in standard cancer care across the region.
Semmelweis’s achievement is unlikely to stand alone for long, and that is a welcome sign for the field as a whole. Borsod County University Teaching Hospital in Miskolc is already listed as an Enrolled centre with IASIOS, working steadily toward the same standards Semmelweis has now met. Further afield, Riga East University Hospital in Latvia and Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos in Lithuania hold the same Enrolled status, each progressing along a similar path. For now, Semmelweis stands as the only fully Accredited centre in Central and Eastern Europe, a distinction that reflects the rigor of the standards it was measured against, and one that may well inspire other institutions across the region to pursue the same recognition.
Congratulations to Prof. Deák and the entire team at Semmelweis University’s Onco-Interventional Department on this well-earned achievement.
