The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), the leading pan-European organisation representing medical oncology professionals, announced that the President for the 2016-2017 period will be Fortunato Ciardiello, Full Professor of Medical Oncology and Director of the Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine and Surgery of the Second University of Naples, Italy.

Candidates for the presidency are proposed by the ESMO Nominating Committee based on recommendations from Society leaders and are then elected by ESMO Full members.

“Having the opportunity to lead ESMO as President is one of the highest honours that a European medical oncologist could dream of. I would like to thank all the ESMO members who voted for me for making this dream come true, demonstrating their appreciation for my continuous commitment to serve the Society,” says Prof Ciardiello.

“ESMO is home to all medical oncologists and it is ‘owned’ by its members. The privilege of being the future ESMO President will translate in a relentless commitment to serve our members, by listening to their needs and offering the tools to allow them to deliver the best treatment to cancer patients as well as to support them in their professional career.”

Prof Ciardiello is currently ESMO Treasurer, Chair of the ESMO Audit Committee, Chair of the ESMO Press & Media Affairs Committee, and Chair of the ESMO Personalised Medicine Task Force; he has been Chair of the ESMO Translational Research Working Group as well as member of the ESMO Educational Committee and member of the ESMO Faculty.

He sits in the editorial board of numerous scientific journals and is author of almost 300 peer-reviewed, PubMed listed scientific publications, with a cumulative impact factor of 1400.

His main areas of research interest are the role of growth factors and their specific receptors in neoplastic transformation, with special focus on the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family, as well as the development of novel anticancer therapeutic strategies targeting these receptors, especially in lung and gastrointestinal cancers.

The current ESMO President is Martine Piccart, Head of the Medicine Department at the Jules Bordet Institut, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.

The President-Elect for the 2014-2015 period is Rolf A. Stahel, Head of the Centre for Lung and Thoracic Oncology and Senior Staff Physician at the Clinic of Oncology, University Hospital of Zürich and Titular Professor of Medicine at the University of Zürich, Switzerland.

“To be the successor of such important players in the European oncology scenario can only push me to work hard to maintain the high standards that ESMO has achieved and to bring further energy and efforts in key aspects of the Society’s activities for the benefit of our members and of cancer patients,” Ciardiello says.

Watch an interview with ESMO President Elect, Prof Ciardiello, here 

Source: ESMO