Umberto Veronesi

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Umberto Veronesi (born November 28, 1925 in Milan ; † November 8, 2016 there ) was an Italian oncologist , surgeon and politician . He was known as an advocate and developer of gentle surgical practices ( quadrantectomy ) in breast cancer .

Umberto Veronesi (right) with President Giorgio Napolitano 2011

Life

Veronesi studied medicine at the University of Milan with a degree (Laurea) in medicine and surgery in 1950. After stays abroad in France and England , he was at the National Tumor Institute in Milan ( Istituto nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori , later the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori , INT), where he became director in 1975.

In 1965 he co-founded the Italian Cancer Research Association ( Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro , AIRC). In 1991 he founded the Istituto Europeo di Oncologia (IEO, European Institute of Oncology) in Milan, of which he was director for a long time. From 1991 to 1993 he was President of the Federation of European Cancer Societies (FECS), 1985 to 1988 of the European Society for Tumor Research (EORTC) and from 1994 of the Committee of Cancer Experts of the EU. He was one of the co-initiators of the Europe Against Cancer Campaign (1996-2002) and the European breast cancer initiative Europa Donna (1992). In 1991 he received the Léopold Griffuel Prize .

In 2003 he founded the Fondazione Umberto Veronesi for the promotion of science, whose president is his son Paolo Veronesi (professor of surgery in Milan and at the IEO). In 2003 he and Axel Ullrich received the König Faisal Prize for Medicine. He is a Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy.

Veronesi was married to the Turkish pediatrician Susy Razon, with whom he had seven children. His son Alberto is a conductor.

plant

Umberto Veronesi is known as a pioneer of gentle breast cancer surgery (removal of the cancerous lump with fringe tissue and the armpit lymph nodes on the diseased side), which he carried out first in 1972. He compared the survival rates in a large study that he proposed to the WHO in 1968 with those for radical mastectomy (published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 305, 1981, pp. 6-11) and showed that this was not the case distinguished. For this, he was initially heavily attacked, especially in the USA, where mastectomy was the dominant surgical treatment method, until a study there in 1985 came to similar results. He also researched improvements in lymph node biopsies (detection of sentinel lymph nodes with lymph scintigraphy , sentinel technique ) with the aim of avoiding unnecessary removal of axillary lymph nodes during breast cancer surgery, developed intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) for breast cancer and dedicated himself to cancer screening. Veronesi conducted studies of tamoxifen and retinoids as preventive agents against breast cancer. Together with the US surgeon Susan Love , he tested the examination of the milk ducts ( milk duct washing , ductal lavage) as a means for the early detection of breast cancer.

He is the author of over 700 scientific publications. In 1998 he headed an official commission to investigate the controversial cancer therapy according to Luigi Di Bella , which at that time caused media attention in Italy.

Political activities and debates

Veronesi was a member of the Partito Democratico . From April 2000 to June 2001 he was Minister of Health in Giuliano Amato's cabinet . In 2008 he became a senator in the Italian parliament.

In 2011 he became President of the Scientific Committee of the Italian-US Society (Fondazione Italia USA) and in 2011 of the Italian Nuclear Safety Agency (Agenzia per la sicurezza nucleare).

Veronesi was active in anti-smoking campaigns and enforced smoking-ban laws during his time as health minister in Italy. In 1995 he advocated the legalization of soft drugs ( cannabis ), particularly pain management. He also campaigned for active euthanasia, which he wrote a book about in 2005. He advocated the peaceful use of nuclear power and in 2007 advocated the construction of new nuclear power plants in Italy in order to fulfill the Italian obligations to reduce carbon dioxide from the Kyoto Protocol . He was an advocate of genetic engineering, which he believed was an intelligent tool for fighting hunger, desertification and reducing pesticide use. In his opinion, naturally occurring toxins, for example in maize, potatoes and basil, are just as dangerous carcinogens as car exhaust fumes, which in his opinion can also be improved with the help of genetic engineering. This led to controversy in Italy in 2005, for example with the slow food movement. Veronesi spoke out in favor of the safety and the expansion of waste incineration plants in Italy.

Veronesi was an avowed agnostic and advocated a vegetarian diet for ethical and health reasons.

Fonts

  • with Mario Pappagallo: Una carezza per guarire. La nuova medicina tra scienza e coscienza , Sperling & Kupfer , Milan, 2005.
  • Il diritto di morire. La libertà del laico di fronte alla sofferenza , Mondadori, 2005 (The right to die).
  • with Alain Elkann: Essere laico , Bompiani 2007.
  • L'ombra e la luce , Einaudi 2008.
  • Editor: Breast Cancer- Textbook for General Practitioners , Springer 1990.
  • Editor: Surgical oncology- a european handbook , Springer 1989.
  • Da bambino avevo un sogno: tra ricerca e cura, la mia lotta al tumore , Mondadori 2002 (As a child I had a dream: of research and healing, my fight against cancer) .

Web links

Commons : Umberto Veronesi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alessandro Guerra: Umberto Veronesi è morto . Cronaca e Attualità, November 8, 2016 (Italian).
  2. ↑ Speech on the award of an honorary doctorate to Veronesi of the University of Naples in 2006
  3. ↑ Youtube interview from Veronesi
personal data
SURNAME Veronesi, Umberto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian medic and politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 28, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 2016
Place of death Milan