1. Current Status, Position:

Scientific Director at Istituto Europeo di Oncologia – IEO (European Institute of Oncology).

2. Education:

Graduated at Milan University in 1951, he worked at the National Cancer Institute Center in Milan ever since graduation, first as pathologist and then as surgeon. After being for many years Director of one of the Surgical Oncology Divisions, was appointed Acting Scientific Director of the Institute in 1973 and Scientific Director from 1975 to April 1994. He is scientific director of IEO from May 1994. Then he became Minister of Health in the Italian government from April 2000 to June 2001. He also was Senator of the sixteenth Italian Parliament from April 2008 to February 2011. He was awarded 13 Honoris Causa degrees.

3. Research Area:

Prof. Dr. Umberto Veronesi is a surgeon who has devoted the greater part of his professional life to exploring new pathways of research with the aim of improving the treatment and quality of life of cancer patients. In the last twenty years he has devoted his interests to breast cancer prevention, conducting two major randomized studies aimed at reducing the risk of breast cancer in normal women by means of retinoids and tamoxifen. More recently he has developed new research using the sentinel node biopsy procedure to avoid axillary dissection when the lymph nodes are not involved. Lately he has re-evaluated the procedures of postoperative radiotherapy after breast conserving surgery, introducing the technique of intraoperative radiotherapy.