Umberto Veronesi
Umberto Veronesi (Milano 28 novembre 1925) è uno scienziato, medico e politico italiano.
La sua attività clinica e di ricerca è stata incentrata per lunghi decenni sulla prevenzione e sulla cura del cancro, ed ha contribuito al raggiungimento di enormi traguardi nella lotta a questa malattia. In particolare si è occupato del carcinoma mammario, il tumore femminile più diffuso al mondo.
Laureatosi in Medicina e Chirurgia presso l'Università Statale di Milano nel 1950, ebbe modo di affinare la sua preparazione scientifica nel campo oncologico presso l'Istituto nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori, nel quale fu attivo fin da dopo la sua laurea e del quale divenne in seguito direttore per 18 anni.
Ha alternato la sua attività presso il citato Istituto con esperienze di lavoro e di studio in Francia e nel Regno Unito, e ha fondato nel 1982 la Scuola Europea di Oncologia. È stato direttore scientifico dell'IEO - Istituto Oncologico Europeo una prima volta dal 1994 al 2000 e, successivamente, dal 2001 a oggi. Nel 2003 ha fondato la Fondazione Umberto Veronesi.
Da sempre impegnato nella lotta al cancro, specialmente quello femminile alla mammella, è un convinto assertore della campagna contro il fumo.
Proprio sui tumori mammari sono stati concentrati i suoi studi, che hanno portato alla scoperta di alcuni derivati della vitamina A quale agente di prevenzione del carcinoma mammario.
Qui sotto riporto dei testi interessanti di Veronesi degli ultimi 180 giorni che ho trovato su pubMed:
Evolution of lung nodules < or ="5">
School of Medicine, University of Milano, 7 Via Festa del Perdono, 20122 Milan, Italy. massimo.bellomi@ieo.it
Low-dose CT is widely employed for the early diagnosis of lung cancer in high-risk populations even if screening programmes have not been clinically validated yet; however, the optimum follow-up schedule for small lung nodules of uncertain status has not been defined. The aim of this study was to assess outcomes for small pulmonary nodules (diameter < or ="5" or =" 5">5 mm; three were removed and found to be malignant (all T1N0); the remaining 21 were followed yearly In the following year, 79 new small nodules were detected (incidence 7.9%). 11.4% were not detected in the subsequent 3 years, 79.7% did not change, 2.5% grew to > 5 mm and were followed yearly In conclusion, prevalent and incident nodules < or ="5">
PMID: 17928499 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Role of positron emission tomography scanning in the management of lung nodules detected at baseline computed tomography screening.
Department of Thoracic Surgery, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy. giulia.veronesi@ieo.it
BACKGROUND: Indeterminate noncalcified lung nodules are a frequent finding when low-dose computed tomography (LD-CT) is used for lung cancer screening. The best clinical management for such nodules remains uncertain. We present results using positron tomography scanning (CT-PET) to evaluate LD-CT-detected lung nodules during the first year of the Continuing Observation of Smoking Subjects (COSMOS) early detection trial for lung cancer. METHODS: A total of 5200 asymptomatic current or former smokers (> or = 20 pack-years) older than 50 years of age were enrolled in a single-institution screening trial using annual LD-CT. Growing nodules and those with a maximum diameter exceeding 8 mm were studied with CT-PET. Transthoracic needle biopsy was not a routine part of the protocol. RESULTS: During the first year of study, 157 subjects underwent CT-PET, 66 of whom underwent surgical biopsy. Of the 58 lung cancers found on surgical biopsy, 51 were positive (standard uptake value > 2.0) and seven were negative for malignancy by CT-PET. Sensitivity was 88% overall, but 100% in the subgroup with solid nodules of 10 mm or more. Among the 8 patients with benign disease at surgical biopsy, CT-PET was positive in 6 and negative in 2. CONCLUSIONS: CT-PET is a highly promising modality for identifying potentially malignant lesions in screening-detected lung nodules and appears particularly useful as an alternative, in the screening setting, to invasive procedures for the further investigation of uncertain nodules. Our findings also indicate that the standard uptake value threshold for positivity should be lowered for small nodules (<>
PMID: 17720408 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Antitumour and biological effects of letrozole and GnRH analogue as primary therapy in premenopausal women with ER and PgR positive locally advanced operable breast cancer.
Research Unit of Medical Senology, European Institute of Oncology Milan, via Ripamonti 435, Milan, Italy. rosalba.torrisi@ieo.it
Preoperative endocrine therapy is effective in postmenopausal patients with breast cancers expressing oestrogen receptor. We investigated the activity of primary therapy with letrozole in combination with GnRH analogue in premenopausal women with T2-T4 N0-N2 breast cancer, whose tumours expressed oestrogen and progesterone receptors. We measured the expression of molecular factors involved in responsiveness to endocrine agents including ERalpha, EGFR, HER2, MAP kinases (and phosphorylated forms) ER-beta1, both at initial biopsy and at the time of surgery. Thirty-five patients were included and 32 patients were evaluable for response. Sixteen patients (50%, 95% CI 32-68%) obtained a partial response, 16 patients were stable. One patient showed pathological complete response (3%, 95% CI 0-16%). Response was significantly associated with younger age (P<0.05)>
PMID: 17712311 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
- Plasma testosterone and prognosis of postmenopausal breast cancer patients.
Department of Preventive and Predictive Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy. andrea.micheli@istitutotumori.mi.it
PURPOSE: High endogenous testosterone is associated with increased breast cancer (BC) risk. We designed this study specifically to assess the long-term prognostic role of testosterone in a cohort of postmenopausal BC patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We considered 194 postmenopausal women, operated on for early BC (T1-2N0M0), who never received chemotherapy or hormonal therapy, and who participated in a fenretinide BC prevention trial as untreated controls. Blood samples were collected 3 months (median) after surgery; plasma samples, stored at -80 degrees C, were radioimmunoassayed for testosterone. Median follow-up was 14 years. The main end point was any cancer event. Event-free survival was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Hazard ratios (HRs) of events by testosterone level were estimated by the Cox model, adjusting for age, tumor size, and histology. RESULTS: Patients with high testosterone (> or = 0.40 ng/mL, median of distribution) had significantly lower event-free survival than those with low testosterone (log-rank P = .004). The adjusted HR of patients with high versus low testosterone was 2.05 (95% CI, 1.28 to 3.27). High testosterone was also associated with a significantly higher risk of BC events (relapse and second primary) with an adjusted HR of 1.77 (95% CI, 1.06 to 2.96). Eleven second primaries (non-BC) occurred in the high-testosterone group, four in the low-testosterone group. CONCLUSION: High plasma testosterone strongly predicts poorer prognosis in postmenopausal BC patients not administered adjuvant therapy. Testosterone levels should be determined as part of the prognostic work-up.
PMID: 17548841 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
- Randomized trial of two versus five years of adjuvant tamoxifen for postmenopausal early stage breast cancer. Swedish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group. [J Natl Cancer Inst. 1996]
- Serum sex hormone levels after menopause and subsequent breast cancer. [J Natl Cancer Inst. 1996]
- Randomized clinical trial of breast irradiation following lumpectomy and axillary dissection for node-negative breast cancer: an update. Ontario Clinical Oncology Group. [J Natl Cancer Inst. 1996]
- The impact of induction duration and the number of high-dose cycles on the long-term survival of women with metastatic breast cancer treated with high-dose chemotherapy with stem cell rescue: an analysis of sequential phase I/II trials from the Dana-Farber/Beth Israel STAMP program. [Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2002]
- Ability of low-dose helical CT to distinguish between benign and malignant noncalcified lung nodules. [Chest. 2007]
- Screening for early lung cancer with low-dose spiral CT: prevalence in 817 asymptomatic smokers. [Radiology. 2002]
- Early lung-cancer detection with spiral CT and positron emission tomography in heavy smokers: 2-year results. [Lancet. 2003]
- [Screening for lung cancer with low-dose spiral CT: results in 150 asymptomatic subjects] [Med Clin (Barc). 2003]

