Umberto Veronesi

Umberto Veronesi (28 November 1925 to 8 November 2016) was an Italian oncologist, surgeon and politician, known worldwide for changing how breast cancer is treated. Born in Milan, he qualified in medicine at the University of Milan in 1951 and specialised in surgery at Pavia in 1956. He joined the National Cancer Institute in Milan, became its director in 1975 or 1976 and led it until 1994. Against the then dominant view that cancer needed ever more radical operations, he argued for moving from maximum tolerated to minimum effective treatment. He developed the quadrantectomy, which removes only the affected quarter of the breast, and led the Milan I randomised trial, which compared it with radical mastectomy and found survival to be comparable when radiotherapy was added, with a better aesthetic and psychological result. He helped found the Italian Cancer Research Association in 1965, the European School of Oncology in 1982 and the European Institute of Oncology in 1991, headed the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer from 1985 to 1988, and served as Italy's Minister of Health in 2000 and 2001.