"Oncology in Clinical Practice" is published bimonthly. Each new issue is published no later than on the last day of every second month.

From the very beginning the Polish Society of Clinical Oncology (PTOK) aimed at establishing a professional and prestigious journal, published under the auspices of the the Society. Already in September 1996 Prof. Grzegorz Madej, representative of the PTOK initiative group, wrote: "The forum of exchanging experience would be the annual congress of the Society, organized in Cancer Center and columns of publishing houses of the Society. As our European and American equivalents, we would like to promote young clinicians and award their work with prizes and scholarships. Thanks to this support, the best clinicians would be able to participate in scientific congresses of sister organizations and train their specialties in leading oncology centers all over the world".

At the session of PTOK Board in October 1997, there was a heated discussion over the form of the Society's journal and its potential publisher. In the protocol from the session we can read: "3. Publishing House - Journal of the Polish Society of Clinical Oncology: due to application of three Publishing Houses (Volumed, Nowotwory, Springer PWN), an initiative group was formed to negotiate the choice of the journal (publishing offers, terms and conditions of publication). The members of the initiative group were: Barbara Czerska, Ph.D.; Prof. Grzegorz Madej; Associate Prof. Włodzimierz Ruka; Piotr Siedlecki, Ph.D.; Jan Walewski, Ph.D."

During the 3rd session of the PTOK Management Board in December 1997:

Re 1. Name "Polish Journal of Clinical Oncology" was accepted. An Association of Advocates was asked to register the name in accordance with the press law. It was recommended to ask: Poland - Prof. J. Jassem, J. Hołowiecki, M. Podolak-Dawidziak, Prof. A. Harłazińska-Szmyrka, Prof. A. Kułakowski, abroad: Prof. A. Horwich, J. B. Vermorken, A. Rohatiner, and K. Sternberg if they would like to be part of the Editorial Committee. Further candidacies would be presented at next session of the Board.

Re 2. Discussion on the content of the first issue began with a suggestion of making it a review issue, discussing achievements of Polish Oncology. The suggestion was not accepted. The content required discussion at the next session.

In the next report from the 4th session of PTOK Management Board, also from December 1997 we read:

Re 2. Prof. Grzegorz Madej was chosen Editor in Chief of the Polish Journal of Clinical Oncology. The case of name registration in the Court was managed by Krzysztof Lachowski (in progress).

In the report of the 4th session of PTOK Management Board from February 1998 we read: 10. Plan of preparation to publish the 1st issue of the Polish Journal of Clinical Oncology. The final lineup of the Expert Scientific Committee of the journal (Editorial Board).

Re 10. Invitation letters were sent to selected foreign to encourage them to be part of the Expert Scientific Committee (A. M. Rochatiner, J. B. Vermorken, A. Horwich, C. Sternberg, A. Bono, J. Withouse, Bielak. At that time, the lineup was the following: P. Siedlecki, J. Walewski, J. Jassem, D. Perek, A. Robak, J. Hołowiecki, J. Skołyszewski, A. Harłazińska, M. Podolak-dawidziak, J. Maciejewski, Z. Pojda, M. Pawlicki, M. Wojtukiewicz, J. Markowska, J. Steffen, J. Siedlecki, A. Borówka, W. Bartnik, W. Zatoński.

In April 1998, at another session of the PTOK Management Board, the issue of the journal was raised again.

Re 4. Editorial Committee of Polish Journal of Clinical Oncology was established and gathered the following members: M.D., FACP Cora N. Sternberg, Prof. Dr A. T. van Oosterom, Prof. Michael Whitehouse, M.D., Dr Peter H. Wiernik, Prof. J. B. Vermorken, Prof. Alan Horwich, Prof. Grzegorz Madej Ph.D., Associate Prof. Janusz Siedlecki, Ph.D., Prof. Marek Nowacki Ph.D., Associate Prof. Włodzimierz Ruka, Ph.D., Janusz Meder M.D., Prof. Jerzy Stelmachów Ph.D., Prof. Jan Skołyszewski Ph.D. The discussion concerned also technical capabilities to provide enough articles to the journal. The Comment of Prof. W. Ruka on the necessity to issue the journal may be found in the attachment. In the PTOK archive there is also a document from April 1998 from Medical Publishing House Springer PWN Sp. z o.o., which was asked by PTOK to prepare an initial cost estimate for the journal (scanned below).

In a memo from the meeting of the Management Board in May 1998, final details concerning the journal were specified.

Re 1. It was ascertained that PTOK was still interested in publishing a periodical under the name "Kwartalnik Polskiego Towarzystwa Onkologii Klinicznej" (Polish Journal of Clinical Oncology). The quarterly would be published in Polish and preceded by an English abstract. The Editorial Board and Program Council were formed and included the following members:

Editorial Board: Prof. Grzegorz Madej, Ph.D. - Editor in Chief; Janusz Meder, M.D. - Secretary of the Editorial Board; Associate Professor Maria Podolak-Dawidziak, Ph.D. - Secretary of the Editorial Board; Maciej Krzakowski, Ph.D. - Secretary of the Editorial Board.

Program Council: Prof. Jacek Jassem, Ph.D.; Prof. Bogusław Maciejewski, Ph.D.; Prof. Jan Skołyszewski, Ph.D.; Prof. Cezary Ramlau, Ph.D.; Prof. Marek Pawlicki, Ph.D.; Prof. Jacek Hołowiecki, Ph.D.; Prof. A. Harłazińska-Szmyrka, Ph.D.; Prof. Andrzej Robak, Ph.D.; Prof. Andrzej Borówka, Ph.D.; Prof. Przemysław Janik, Ph.D.; Prof. Marek Wojtukiewicz, Ph.D.; Prof. Janusz Siedlecki, Ph.D.; Tadeusz Pieńkowski, M.D.; Piotr Siedlecki, M.D.; Jan Walewski, M.D.

It would seem that nothing could stop the Society from publishing the journal. However, formation of PTOK structures and realization of an exceptionally intense and ambitious program of conferences, congresses and trainings, as well as other plans consumed so much time that in the protocol of the PTOK Audit Committee for period 1996-2001, apart from mentioning many achievements of the Society, a self-critical information could be found that: "The Board failed to implement the plan of publishing a journal".

Several years had to pass and, finally, in 2005 the first issue of the PTOK journal Oncology in Clinical Practice (initially a quarterly) came off the printing press. The co-editor of the journal is Via Medica Publishing House in Gdańsk.

Małgorzata Stępień

Oncology in Clinical Practice – creating English-language versions of issued publications – task financed under the agreement No. 790/P-DUNdem/2019 from the funds of the Minister of Science and Higher Education allocated to the dissemination of science.