IELSG President
Prof. Franco Cavalli’s research priorities are new drugs and new treatment modalities, hematological malignancies, including lymphomas and breast cancer.
At present, he is President of the Foundation for the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR), which manages the IELSG. He is also Chairman of the scientific committee of the European School of Oncology (ESO).
During his long career, Franco Cavalli was Medical and Scientific Director of the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland (IOSI).
In the past, Prof. Cavalli was President of the Swiss Cancer League, Chairman of the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK) and member of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer.
He founded Annals of Oncology, of which he was Editor-in-Chief for a decade. He also founded the Association for Medical Aid to Central America (AMCA), of which he is still the Scientific Director.
Professor Cavalli is author or co-author of over 550 scientific papers and has been awarded with numerous international awards.
IELSG Scientific and Medical Director
Prof. Emanuele Zucca has been working at the Division of Medical Oncology of the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland (IOSI), where he is presently a consultant and the head of the Lymphoma Unit.
His research programs in the 1990s resulted in pioneering works on the application of molecular methods for the detection of minimal residual disease in lymphomas, to the elucidation of the effect of antibiotic therapy in low-grade gastric MALT lymphomas as well as the study of the antigen dependent mechanisms in the development of the latter. Later he focused his research interest on the extranodal lymphomas.
He is an active member of the European Society for Clinical Oncology (ESMO) and of the American Society of Haematology (ASH).
He is a member of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Bern (Adjunct Professor) and of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland.
Prof. Zucca is author or co-author of more than 200 scientific papers, communications at major international scientific meetings and book chapters.
Basic and Translational Research Coordinator
Prof. Francesco Bertoni is the head of the Lymphoma Genomics Group and deputy director of the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR previously IOSI Laboratory of Experimental Oncology).
His research topics are the development of novel drugs for lymphoma patients and the identification of genetic or epigenetic alterations in lymphomas as tools to predict the outcome and the response to therapies or as new therapeutic targets. Prof. Bertoni actively participates to Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK), in which he is vice-president of the Project Group Lymphoma and member of the Project Group New Anticancer Treatment. He is a member of several societies including American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Society of Hematology (ASH), European Hematology Association (EHA) and European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO).
Since January 2009 Prof. Bertoni is the Editor-in-Chief of the Hematological Oncology journal and is the author or co-author of over 200 original papers, over 50 editorials or invited reviews, 20 book sections, one edited book, several abstracts at national and international meetings.
Scientific Advisor
Dr Annarita Conconi is the head of the Struttura Semplice a Valenza Dipartimentale di Ematologia – Ospedale degli Infermi – ASLBi Biella, Italy.
Her research programs have been devoted to the molecular biology and clinical trials in the field of non-Hodgkin lymohoma. She is author or co-author of more than 60 scientific papers published on peer-reviewed journals and of several communications at international scientific meetings.
Dr. Annarita Conconi is a member of several societies including European Society for Clinical Oncology (ESMO), Società Italiana di Ematologia Sperimentale (SIES), American Society of Haematology (ASH), Gruppo Italiano Trapianti di Midollo Osseo (GITMO) and Società Italiana di Ematologia (SIE).
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Anastasios Stathis mainly deals with gastrointestinal tumors and lymphomas. During a training period in Canada he specialized in the development of new anticancer drugs and in particular in phase I studies.
He is the head of the New Drugs Development Unit and Medical Director of the Clinical Research at Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland (IOSI) in Bellinzona, Switzerland.
Dr. Stathis is member of several societies including American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Society of Hematology (ASH), European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), and Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK).
He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and of several communications at international scientific meetings.
Dr. Stathis has served as Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator for several clinical trials focusing on hematological malignancies and drug development, mainly phase I studies. He received several international awards and is a Private lecturer at the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland.
EU Representative
Prof. Stefano Luminari is the head of clinical research program in oncohematology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy)
Prof. Luminari’s activity has been mainly focused on several aspects of clinical research in malignant lymphomas, in particular biomarkers and prognostic studies.
He is an active member of the Fondazione Italiana Linfomi and Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator in several clinical trials mainly focused on indolent lymphomas, Hodgkin lymphomas, aggressive lymphomas (mainly elderly patients) and in the use of PET in lymphomas. Moreover, he has an active role in the management of the international observational “T-Cell Project” study aimed at defining a new prognostic score for Peripheral T- Cell Lymphomas.
He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and of several communications at international scientific meetings.