The earthquake that shook Central Italy during 2016 and 2017 confirmed once again the country's vulnerability. These catastrophic events have serious consequences both on the lives of cancer patients and on the organization of healthcare assistance. After the earthquake that devastated the city of L'Aquila in 2009, the nearby hospitals were declared unfit, thus, patients were deprived of their natural reference center. We think that it's time to act and open a discussion having in mind that each event has its own specific set of critical characteristics: standardized protocols to be activated in all situations could become inapplicable in some specific circumstances. We strongly recommend the creation of a task force including oncologists, nurses and psychologists with hands-on experience, able to support colleagues working in the affected areas immediately after the event. Scientific societies could play an extremely important role in fostering a better training of the health professionals in case of natural disasters.