The Union Internationale Contre le Cancer (UICC) and the WHO-Collaborating Centre for Cancer Education (WHO-CCCE) have started an international pilot project offering assistance to medical schools that want to implement in their curricula a two-week multidisciplinary cancer course aimed at cancer care in general practice. The approach will be bottom-up (based on the possibilities in individual medical schools) instead of top-down (based on general recommendations and rules established in published studies). In April 2000 one or more medical schools from each of four continents had registered. Registration is open to any medical school and to other schools that have satisfactory ongoing cancer courses. The aim is to develop a network among medical schools in order for them to learn from each other's cancer education strategies and experiences.