Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori
Milan, Italy
Hospital overview
Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (INT) is one of the main national and international referral centers for the treatment and study of cancer and it is the largest comprehensive cancer centre in Italy. Since its establishment (1928), it has aimed to provide the highest standards of cancer care and to pursue pre-clinical and clinical research in such a way as to swiftly translate innovation into better prevention, diagnosis, therapy and rehabilitation for Italian cancer patients.
Istituto Nazionale Tumori strongly pursues the objective of multidisciplinary care, working through disease-based multidisciplinary groups. This provides the most appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic options, based on state-of-the-art scientific evidence, within a framework of integrated knowledge, resource management, and research support.
Istituto Nazionale Tumori has a long-standing record on rare cancers, serving as one of the Italian reference centers for several rare cancers, including childhood cancers, sarcomas, head & neck cancers, peritoneal and pleural mesothelioma and thymoma, neuroendocrine tumors, male genital tumors, rare female genital cancers, rare digestive cancers, in addition to haematological cancers. It coordinates the Italian Rare Cancer Network, i.e., a healthcare national network exploiting telemedicine for distant rare adult solid cancer case-sharing between reference centers and medical oncology facilities throughout Italy. It is the coordinating Institution of the Joint Action on Rare Cancers of the European Union and serves as the domain leader for sarcomas and for head & neck rare cancers within the EU "EUropean reference network on Rare Adult CANcers" (EURACAN).
Tax
Please note that doctors taking part in a CTC in Italy will be subject to paying Italian tax
CTC programmes offered
1. Pediatric Oncology, Solid tumors of childhood and adolescence and lymphomas |
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| Discipline: | Medical, Surgical and Radiation Oncology of Pediatric tumors |
| Programme mentor: |
Dr. Maura Massimino |
| Duration: | 3 - 6 months |
| Type: | Visiting Observership |
| Language requirements: |
Local language is Italian. The second language spoken at Istituto Nazionale Tumori is English. If Italian is not spoken, intermediate-level in English is required |
| Programme description: |
For over 50 years this Pediatrics Unit has dealt with children, adolescents and young adults suffering from solid tumors of the pediatric age. The Pediatric Oncology unit of INT conducts clinical and research projects on typical solid cancers of pediatric and adolescence age, and represents a referral center for all the country. Most members belong to a vast network of scientific societies in an international background that is at the origin of the majority of academic trials here driven. Many of those are here nationally and/or internationally coordinated. Over 75% patients are treated within clinical controlled trials also including phase 1 and 2 with new drugs. Patient management is based on a true multidisciplinary approach that includes diagnosis (with specific dedicated histological and imaging expertise), treatment (including interdisciplinary activity with the pediatric surgical unit and the pediatric radiotherapy unit, a Bone Marrow Transplantation Jacie approved program and a team dedicated to phase 1-2 therapy in patients with relapsing/refractory solid tumors). Psychosocial support both for kids and parents is provided since diagnosis and during all treatment and follow-up as well as long term survivors program (for the follow-up of iatrogenic sequelae and social re-entry). Counseling and genetic testing are ad hoc provided and will be implemented. Scholastic career is daily followed with dedicated teachers of public school of any grade from nursery to secondary school end with tailored programs both in and out of the hospital. During 2018, over 250 new patients/year were diagnosed and treated. The Structure, also in the next few years, will continue to promote research aimed at integrating increased survival and quality of life improvement through multi-center, national and European cooperative studies, with the collection of fresh tissue to better outline the treatment and prognosis and for the construction of academic tissue banks. The main objectives of these studies are to increase knowledge about the natural history of pathologies and their biological characteristics; the identification of new therapeutic targets; the development of new drugs for patients with resistant or progressive disease. The Structure will also continue to promote translational research in order to study the heterogeneity of pediatric tumors, define its carcinogenic and progression mechanisms and identify prognostic and predictive factors through the most innovative genomic techniques and the definition of adequate and representative animal models of the tumor of origin on which to evaluate the efficacy of new drugs. Pediatrics is part of the Pediatric Rare Tumours Network (pediatric network on rare pediatric tumors: incidence <2 / 1,000,000) and will work to define models for the management and study of extra rare pediatric tumors. Moreover, the peculiar location of this Unit within the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, an oncology reference center, has favored the development of a special attention to adolescent and young adult patients with the creation of a project dedicated to patients in this age range, the Youth Project. The structure will continue to work, through this project, expanding collaboration also to population cancer registries, with the aim of:
Finally, children, adolescents and young adults who recover from cancer have a greater risk than peers to report health problems even years after recovery. There is no complete information on how much they are at risk, why and how to avoid these health problems thus we are involved in the PanCare project, Childhood and Adolescent Cancer Survivor Care and Follow-up Studies. |