Our Story

All aspects of the highly complex care required for pediatric oncology as well as the research that goes into it are housed in the Princess Máxima Center. Its mission: to cure every child with cancer while maintaining their quality of life. Close cooperation between care and research will lead to more children with cancer being cured and with fewer adverse effects in later life. The Princess Máxima Center, as an independent organization, started to provide care to children with certain types of cancer in the fall of 2014, on its own wards located within the WKZ, the Wilhelmina Children's Hospital. In 2016, we started research under the banner of the Princess Máxima Center. The construction of our own Center, opposite the WKZ in Utrecht, also started in 2016. The first patients started using the new building on May 18, 2018.

Our mission

The level of ambition of the Princess Máxima Center is very high. Our aim is to cure as many children and adolescents with cancer as quickly possible, while maintaining their quality of life, so that it will be easy for them to find their place in society. We have translated these ambitions into the following mission: The Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology wants to cure every child with cancer while maintaining their quality of life. The first thing that strikes you as you walk around in the Princess Máxima Center is that there is a huge sense of inspiration, a passion to be the best and to provide the optimum level of care for children with cancer and the people around them. All employees - from specialists to nurses, from the cooks to the volunteers - want to excel and genuinely want to be close to the children to help them. It is therefore not without reason that our core values are to be:

Groundbreaking
Passionate

Our core values are the shortest possible summary of what the Princess Máxima Center stands for: we go further than others have ever gone, and we do that with all our heart and soul.

Our vision

In order to realize this mission, it is first of all necessary to concentrate all highly complex care and all research in one location. With the arrival of the Princess Máxima Center, this bundling has been achieved. But even more important is the integration of care and research. The reason is that only by working closely together in research and standing at the bedside of the patient together, that we arrive at new insights and new, improved treatments. That is the uniqueness and strength of the Princess Máxima Center: the integration of care and research. That also means that all patients (after consent, of course) participate in the research and that any results of that research are quickly available for other patients. This is essential in order to cure more children with fewer side effects, even side effects that present in the future.

Another unique aspect is the way in which we support and place the child and family in the middle of everything. Even when ill, we want the children to develop as normally as possible and the children and their families to lead as 'normal' life as possible. And we want to involve families as much as possible when arranging care and give them control over the care provided. We offer all kinds of facilities in the building, especially for children and parents. For example, there are parent-child units so that parents can always stay with their child, and the living rooms where parents can prepare their own meals. There is a construction playground and a music room. All this falls under the umbrella of developmental care.

Medical, nursing and paramedical professionals always work proactively together in order to stimulate the development of children within the family as much as possible. The support staff and researchers are also always well aware of this in their work. Facility Services (e.g. food) are also fully aligned to the needs and wants of children and families. Parents and children have also actively participated in the development of services and facilities and have indicated what they wanted.

Downloads