Who we are
The Foundation for the Institute of Oncology Research, based in Bellinzona, was founded in 1999 and is responsible for managing the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR) in Bellinzona, the International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group (IELSG), and the International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML).
President
Prof. Franco Cavalli
Franco Cavalli, President of the IOR Foundation, is an internationally-renowned expert in the field of oncology research.
Under his leadership and thanks to his strategic vision, the institutions linked to the Foundation have become centres of excellence in oncology research and lymphoma treatment, making significant contributions to the advancement of scientific knowledge and the development of new treatments.
In 1981, he organised the first edition of the ICML, which since then has become the world’s most important conference on malignant lymphoma.
In 1998, he founded the IELSG, which today includes over 300 institutions across four continents and is the leader in clinical and biological studies on extranodal lymphoma.
Thanks to his pioneering work, he has also strengthened the reputation of the IOR as a centre of excellence in the fight against cancer.
History
The IOR Foundation was established on 11 January 1999 as the “Foundation for the Research and Treatment of Lymphomas” in Ticino. Its creation was driven by the need to provide the International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML), which had significantly expanded since 1981, with an appropriate legal and administrative structure.
The Foundation has steadily strengthened its presence in the oncology research landscape of Ticino by funding targeted projects, with a particular focus on malignant lymphoma. It has played a crucial role in financially supporting the development of the IELSG (International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group) and in creating the lymphoma database of the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland (IOSI), an essential tool for identifying relevant topics in clinical research.
In 2011, due to legal and administrative requirements, the Foundation took over the management of the IOSI research laboratories, which at the time were located in the building of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) in Bellinzona. These laboratories were later renamed the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR).
This change, strongly backed by the federal authorities, was driven by the quality of the research conducted in the laboratories, which justified the allocation of federal subsidies. However, this support required administrative separation from the EOC (Ticino Cantonal Hospital) and IOSI to avoid complications related to federal funding for cantonal entities. This allowed for more flexible management of the IOR, which has experienced rapid growth since then.
As the management of the IOR became the Foundation’s primary activity, and to align with the parallel structure of the IRB, the decision was made in 2018 to change its name to the “Foundation for the Institute of Oncology Research.” This change was approved by the federal authorities and the Foundation Supervision Office, and thus the IOR became fully operational in 2018.
