Geneva University Hospitals (HUG)

Geneva University Hospitals (Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, HUG) is the largest university hospital group in Switzerland: 11 hospital sites and 2,073 beds, with 66,320 hospital stays and more than 1.3 million consultations in 2025.

The HUG Cancer Center brings together four externally certified cancer centres — colorectal, lung and prostate (European Cancer Centres programme) and breast (Swiss Cancer League and Swiss Society of Senology, since 2014). Every case is reviewed by a tumour board dedicated to that cancer type; 15 boards meet on a regular schedule, from sarcoma and brain tumours to bone metastases.

The Oncology Division treats every cancer, from the most common to the rarest — lung, gynaecological, urogenital, skin, digestive, head and neck, thyroid and brain cancers, sarcomas and orphan cancers. The Radio-oncology Service is the university referral centre for the canton of Geneva.

HUG is a founding member of the Swiss Cancer Center Léman (SCCL), an alliance with Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne and EPFL focused on precision oncology, which gives patients access to clinical trials of new treatments.

Precision oncology: a dedicated Precision Oncology Service with an oncogenetics unit, and the Geneva Translational Oncology Program (GTOP), which links clinical data from thousands of patients with digitised tumour samples to personalise treatment.

Thoracic oncology: around 80% of lung resections are performed by minimally invasive video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), with segmentectomy for small tumours to preserve healthy lung.

Digestive cancers: hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) and pressurised intraperitoneal aerosol chemotherapy (PIPAC) for selected patients.

Stereotactic radiotherapy and radiosurgery: a dedicated unit delivering high-precision treatment, about one third of radio-oncology activity.

Immunotherapy and clinical trials: through the SCCL alliance, development of new treatments such as immunotherapy, with access to clinical trials.