Minister for Health visits St. Vincent’s UCD Cancer Centre

11th November 2026

Minister meets patients and staff and hears about advances in cancer treatment and research.

Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD recently visited St. Vincent’s UCD Cancer Centre to meet patients and staff and hear about its specialist cancer services, new treatments and research, following its classification as a Comprehensive Cancer Centre by the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI).

St. Vincent’s UCD Cancer Centre, is a partnership between St. Vincent’s University Hospital, St. Vincent’s Private Hospital and University College Dublin (UCD). The Centre has six nationally designated specialist cancer services, provides a supra-regional bladder cancer service and is a leading provider of breast cancer screening and treatment.

In 2025, the Centre recorded 3,820 newly diagnosed cancers (including melanoma but excluding skin cancer) and 15,548 multidisciplinary team discussions, reflecting the scale and complexity of the care provided across its specialist services.  In 2025, more than 50 cancer trials and studies were open, while researchers across the partnership contributed to 324 cancer-related publications.

Minister Carroll MacNeill said:

“It was a pleasure to meet patients and staff today and see first-hand the advances being made in cancer treatment and research. I was particularly interested to hear about the new treatments being introduced across the Centre and would like to congratulate everyone at St. Vincent’s UCD Cancer Centre on their OECI accreditation.”

Dr David Fennelly, Clinical Director of St. Vincent’s UCD Cancer Centre and HSE Cancer Lead for Dublin and the South East, said:

“We were delighted to welcome the Minister and introduce her to some of the people working across our cancer services. There’s been enormous progress in cancer treatment in recent years and we’re seeing the benefits of that in the treatments we can offer patients.

Achieving Comprehensive Cancer Centre status is an important milestone and reflects years of work across our hospitals and UCD to develop specialist services and strengthen the links between research and patient care. It’s a credit to the dedication and expertise of our teams. The Minister’s visit gave us an opportunity to show some of that progress in practice, including recent developments in cancer treatment.”

During her visit, the Minister toured the Cancer Day Centre and spoke with clinical and research teams about recent developments across the Centre. These include a new outpatient laser treatment for small bladder tumours, first performed in the Republic of Ireland at St. Vincent’s. The procedure allows suitable patients to receive treatment without a general anaesthetic or hospital admission.

Through its partnership with UCD, the Centre supports the education and training of healthcare professionals, bringing clinical and academic expertise together across the campus for the benefit of patients.

ENDS

Notes to editors

About St. Vincent’s UCD Cancer Centre

St. Vincent’s UCD Cancer Centre is a partnership between St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group (St. Vincent’s University Hospital and St. Vincent’s Private Hospital) and University College Dublin. It is one of eight nationally designated adult cancer centres in Ireland.

• Its six nationally designated specialist cancer services are pancreatic cancer, primary liver cancer, sarcoma, neuroendocrine tumours, testicular cancer and Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT).
• Recent developments include fully robotic neobladder surgery for selected bladder cancer patients, among the first performed in Ireland.
• Through its partnership with UCD, the Centre supports cancer research and the education and training of healthcare professionals.

The Centre was designated an OECI Cancer Centre in December 2025 and classified as an OECI Comprehensive Cancer Centre in September 2026 under the organisation’s revised designation framework.

Further information: www.stvincentsucdcancercentre.ie