Zorana Maravic

Acting CEO of Digestive Cancers Europe (DiCE)

Zorana Maravic is a molecular biologist passionate about science, research and health education. Since the start of 2021, she has been leading Digestive Cancers Europe, an umbrella organisation of more than 30 national member organisations across WHO Europe.

After a decade of working in the pharmaceutical industry in marketing and sales, Zorana started a new professional journey in 2012 in patient advocacy. She was of the conviction that more should be done to erase health inequalities, to better patient survival rates and to improve the quality of life of people living through the challenging realities of receiving a cancer diagnosis and subsequently undergoing treatment. She also felt strongly about greater patient involvement in their treatment and in decision-making processes.

She enjoys working closely with these people - ‘patients’, humbly learning something new from each person she has the chance to meet and exchange with every day. This is along with the DiCE Member Organisations, who help her to better understand the differences in treatment realities and public health policy across Europe.

A data enthusiast, she led a Survey on the Unmet Needs of Patients Living with mCRC (metastatic Colorectal Cancer), helping recruit more than 800 patients across Europe. She was proud to have had the opportunity to co-author academic papers on this survey, with their publication helping to further support the patient population that Digestive Cancers Europe is serving.

Along with this, she enjoys learning constantly through her work with different stakeholders on the complexities of various health-related topics. Her vision is a Europe free of patients and carers facing the unnecessary burden of digestive cancers.

Updated: September 2021