UMBERTO VERONESI - A powerful man of science who never surrendered

The cultural part of the Annual Report is dedicated to Professor Umberto Veronesi, an internationally renowned oncologist.

Born in Milan on 28 November 1925, Veronesi grew up in the naturalistic culture of the agricultural world, transmitted by his father who unfortunately died when he was still a child. His father's loss deeply linked him to his mother, Erminia Verganti, from whom he learned two fundamental principles: tolerance and the search for the causes of events.

In 1951 she graduated in Medicine and immediately began working at the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan.

In 1965, thanks to the contributions of the Milanese industrial bourgeoisie, he founded the Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC), today the most important Italian charity.

A tireless researcher and great innovator, in the early seventies he developed the conservative surgical technique of quadrantectomy, which still allows only the part affected by cancer to be removed from the breast, improving the quality of life of women from a physical, but also and above all psychological point of view.

In 1982, thanks to a generous bequest from the Necchi family living in Lugano, he founded the European School of Oncology (ESO) based in Bellinzona, among its founding members was Franco Cavalli, a professor and oncologist from Ticino.

Eclectic and curious man, in 1994 he founded the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Milan, of which he was scientific director until 2014.