Guido Venosta and AIRC – The Great Initiatives: the Establishment of a Chair in Medical Oncology at the University of Milan, 1996
In 1982, Guido Venosta, President of AIRC, promoted alongside the Association the Italian Foundation for Cancer Research (FIRC) as an asset-holding entity designed to secure a guaranteed flow of funds for oncological research over time. Once a certain asset solidity was achieved, FIRC began supporting, among other systematic projects of great scope and significance, several initiatives. Among these, the third was “the first historic private intervention in support of Italian higher education.” In fact, by committing to at least ten years of significant financial support, the Foundation enabled the University of Milan to establish a Chair in Medical Oncology within its Faculty of Medicine and Surgery—an academic program that until then had been limited to isolated modules within individual specialties rather than offering an integrated approach with a comprehensive cultural perspective. This represents a clear investment in the future, ensuring that the University can rely on a larger number of better-prepared oncologists, a research base already specialized in the oncological field, and a specific medical culture at the highest level of global knowledge available today.
Even today, the Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology (its current name), so strongly advocated by Venosta despite numerous obstacles, has as its mission “to invest in training, research, and patient care, placing the cancer patient at the center of university and professional education and preparation…”—a central goal that seems to echo the words of those who first supported and funded this initiative.
Bibliography:
G. VENOSTA, Dal profit al nonprofit. Storia di un’esperienza, Milan, 1997.
P.P. PRETI, “Con il contributo FIRC l’oncologia sale in cattedra”, in Fondamentale, No. 3/1996, pp. 12–13.
Università degli Studi di Milano, Departments – the Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology (https://dipo.unimi.it/it/dipartimento).
