The importance of knowledge based oncology – an interview with Vincenzo Valentini

At the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer 2017 (Barcelona, Spain, 28 June–1 July) we had the pleasure of speaking with Vincenzo Valentini from Gemelli ART (Rome, Italy). Listen to the interview now, to find out about the importance of knowledge based oncology and integrating radiotherapy with other treatment modalities such as surgery.

Vincenzo Valentini is Full Professor in radiation oncology and Chair of the Radiation Oncology Department at the Gemelli-ART, Università Cattolica S.Cuore, (Rome, Italy).

In the past 30 years Vincenzo Valentini focused his activity exclusively in Radiotherapy directing his interest to all its different fields. Particularly he focused on: the optimization of radiation treatments by using different imaging techniques for the definition of target volume delineation guidelines; integration between radiotherapy and surgery, in which he collaborated for the conduction of pre-operative and intra-operative programs; integration between radiotherapy and chemotherapy, in which he applied different schedules for the treatment of locally advanced neoplasm especially in GI, GU, Lung and H&N.

He implemented a Quality Assurance Program in the Radiation Oncology Department, accredited by the American College of Radiation Oncology, since 2002. Furthermore, he is a member of the EURECCA (EUropean REgistry of Cancer Care) Consortium.

Vincenzo Valentini also directed his interest on the computer’s application in the fields of care, research and teaching. He promoted in the 80’s a telematics system for clinical consultation in the Italian oncological scenario (TELECOS project); tutorials for delineation of target volume (TIGER and FALCON by ESTRO); on line dissemination of ESTRO knowledge repository (DOVE, EAGLE). Over the past years he worked on the realization of different clinical medical record systems to ease the clinical management of patients and data mining. He also recently opened two Knowledge Based oncology laboratories for research in large data base data mining and radiomics.