Umberto Veronesi
Born(1925-11-28)28 November 1925
Milan, Kingdom of Italy
Died8 November 2016(2016-11-08) (aged 90)
Milan, Italy
NationalityItalian
Alma materUniversity of Milan
Known forbreast-conserving surgery in breast cancer treatment with the invention of the technique of quadrantectomy
Scientific career
InstitutionsEuropean Institute of Oncology
Minister of Health
In office
25 April 2000 – 11 June 2001
Prime MinisterGiuliano Amato
Preceded byRosy Bindi
Succeeded byGirolamo Sirchia
Personal details
Political partyPD (2007–2016)
Other political
affiliations		PSI (1980s–1994)
Independent (1994–2007)
ProfessionOncologist

Umberto Veronesi M.D. Knight Grand Cross OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [umˈbɛrto veroˈneːzi, -eːsi]; 28 November 1925 – 8 November 2016) was an Italian oncologist, physician, scientist and politician, internationally known for his contributions on prevention and treatment of breast cancer throughout a career spanning over fifty years.

Early life and education

Veronesi was born in Milan. He obtained his degree in medicine from the University of Milan in 1952, and dedicated his professional life to the study and treatment of cancer.

Scientific career

After spending brief periods in England and France, he joined the Italian Cancer Institute in Milan as a volunteer. Veronesi challenged the dominant paradigm among surgeons that cancer could only be treated with aggressive surgery. He championed a paradigm shift in cancer care from "maximum tolerated" to "minimum effective" treatment.[1][2] He was a pioneer of breast-conserving surgery in early breast cancer as an alternative to a radical mastectomy. He developed the technique of quadrantectomy, which limits surgical resection to the affected quarter of the breast. Between 1973 and 1980 he led the first prospective randomised trial of breast conserving surgery (the Milan I trial), which compared outcomes from radical mastectomy against quadrantectomy. The results, published in 1981,[3] and confirmed in 2002 in a 20-year follow-up study,[4] played a key role in establishing breast conserving surgery as standard of care for patients with early breast cancer, alongside results from trials of lumpectomy led by the US breast surgeon Bernard Fisher. Veronesi supported and promoted scientific research aimed at improving conservative surgical techniques, including sentinel lymph node biopsy, which resulted in axillary dissection in breast cancer with clinically negative lymph nodes no longer being performed. He also contributed to breast cancer prevention conducting studies on tamoxifen and retinoids and verifying their capabilities to prevent the formation of carcinoma. He was an activist in anti-tobacco campaigns. In 1994 he founded the European Institute of Oncology, which he directed until his death. He was appointed President of the Scientific Committee of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2010. In 2009, through his foundation (Fondazione Veronesi), he started the project "Science for Peace", in order to promote peaceful relations through scientific development.[5]

He was Chairman of the BioGeM Scientific Committee.

Political career

  • 1993 member of the national Commission against cancer.
  • 1998 member of the national Commission for the evaluation of "Di Bella therapy" against cancer.
  • 2000-2001 Minister of Health under the Amato II Cabinet.
On 25 April 2000 he was appointed to the Amato II Cabinet as the minister of health[6] and was in office until 11 June 2001. He was instrumental in the promotion of the anti-smoking in public places act.
  • 2008 Main candidate in Milan for the Democratic Party (PD) to the Italian Senate.
  • 2010-2011 Chairman of Italy's Nuclear Safety Agency.[7][8][9]

Ethical views

Over the years, Veronesi publicly expressed his views on several ethical issues in interviews, televised debates and his books.

Veronesi identified himself as an agnostic,[10] not believing in any form of afterlife. He claimed that human beings should not consider death a terrifying moment, but rather accept it as a biological necessity.[11]

He supported active euthanasia, affirming the right of any individual to end their life if it became unbearable due to suffering or loss of dignity. He advocated the necessity to regulate euthanasia at a national level, citing Dutch legislation as a good starting point;[12] he was promoting a campaign for the introduction of living will as a legally binding agreement between the doctor and the incapacitated patient.[13]

Veronesi supported genetically modified organisms as a way to produce food with higher nutritional capabilities and deprived of potentially carcinogenic substances. He criticized the current opposition to GMOs as being due to lack of scientific knowledge.[14]

Vegetarianism

Veronesi was an ethical vegetarian and an animal rights advocate.[15] He was a vegetarian for ethical reasons but also promoted the health benefits of a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet.[16][17]

In 2012, Veronesi co-authored Verso la scelta vegetariana (Towards the vegetarian choice) with Mario Pappagallo. The book contains 200 vegetarian recipes.[18][19]

Awards

  • Veronesi received thirteen national and international honorary degrees in medicine, medical biotechnologies, physics, agricultural sciences and pedagogical sciences.
  • In 2002 he received the King Faisal International Prize. In this regard, he then stated:

"In recent years, I have been increasingly involved in curing Islamic women. They started to come to me and undergo surgery at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) after I received in 2002 in Saudi Arabia the King Faisal International Prize for my studies on conservative breast surgery. As a matter of fact, for the Islamic world that recognition is a kind of Nobel.»[20]

Selected publications

  • Verso la scelta vegetariana (with Mario Pappagallo, 2012)
  • Breast Cancer: Innovations in Research and Management (with Aron Goldhirsch, 2017)
  • Il diritto di essere umani (2018)
  • I segreti della lunga vita (with Mario Pappagallo, 2021)

See also

References

  1. ↑ https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2012.00125/full Veronesi U, Stafyla V, Luini A et al (2012) Breast cancer:from“maximum tolerable" to "minimum effective" treatment. Front Oncol 2:125
  2. ↑ https://www.thebreastonline.com/article/S0960-9776(16)30247-8/fulltext Curigliano G, Cardoso F, Costa A et al. (2017) From the maximum tolerable to the minimum effective treatment: Umberto Veronesi's life commitment to breast cancer care. Breast 31:241‒243
  3. ↑ Veronesi U, Saccozzi R, Del Vecchio M et al. (1981) Comparing Radical Mastectomy with Quadrantectomy, Axillary Dissection, and Radiotherapy in Patients with Small Cancers of the Breast. N Engl J Med 305:6‒11
  4. ↑ https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa020989 Veronesi U, Cascinelli N, Mariani L et al. (2002) N Engl J Med 347:1227‒1232
  5. ↑ "Fondazione Veronesi :: Science for Peace". Archived from the original on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  6. ↑ "Giuliano Amato Italy's new Prime Minister". Cosmopolis. 6. May 2000. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ Migliaccio, Alessandra (12 November 2010). "Doctor Heading Italy's New Atomic Agency Pledges to Sell Nuclear Revival". Bloomberg L.P.
  9. ↑ Rendina, Federico (4 September 2011). "Agenzia nucleare, Veronesi lascia". Il Sole 24 ORE (in Italian).
  10. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Umberto Veronesi: il dialogo tra scienza e fede" – via YouTube.
  11. ↑ "Io voglio morire così". OK! La salute prima di tutto. February 2006. Retrieved 5 February 2007.
  12. ↑ "Veronesi difende l'eutanasia "Morire è un diritto fondamentale"". La Repubblica (in Italian). 18 November 2005. Retrieved 5 February 2007.
  13. ↑ Pappagallo, Mario (1 March 2006). "Veronesi: fate testamento biologico". Corriere della Sera. Retrieved 5 February 2007.
  14. ↑ "Intervista all'ex Ministro della Salute Veronesi". La Stampa (in Italian). 28 October 2004. Retrieved 5 February 2007.
  15. ↑ "Umberto Veronesi: "Essere vegetariani è una conquista di civiltà"". L'espresso (in Italian). 19 March 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  16. ↑ "Umberto Veronesi". theamericanmag.com. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  17. ↑ Intervista Ad Umberto Veronesi. larixlaboratori.it. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  18. ↑ "Verso la scelta vegetariana". giunti.it. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  19. ↑ "Verso la scelta vegetariana". vegolosi.it. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  20. ↑ Veronesi, Umberto (2010). Dell'amore e del dolore delle donne [Of love and pain of women] (in Italian). Turin: Einaudi. ISBN 978-88-06-20133-3.
  21. ↑ Zanutto, Mauro (2 August 2010). "Jesolo, Professor among the stars, named after Veronesi a stretch of the seafront". Corriere della Sera del Veneto (in Italian).
  22. ↑ Professor Umberto Veronesi’s Speech, Town Hall of Viareggio, Italy, 2 August 2012 (in Italian)

Sources

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