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Letter to the Editor

Professor of Oncology and Medicine, University of South Florida College of Medicine and Program, Leader, Senior Adult Oncology Program, Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, Florida. Member, Board of Directors, International Society of Geriatric Oncology

In his otherwise excellent profile of Prof. Paul Calabresi [1], Dr. Curt omitted the fact that Paul served as founding president of the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG). He was unanimously elected to that position in New York in the year 2000, when the Society was incorporated, and served as president until 2002. The masterpiece of Prof. Calabresi’s life was accomplished with the promotion of geriatric oncology, during his last few years. As a scholar of medicine, epidemiology, and humanity he became aware before anybody else of the impact of cancer on the survival and quality of life of older individuals and of the impact of aging on the incidence and prevalence of cancer, and devoted his last efforts to the study of cancer in the older person. He invested all his unmatched credentials as well as his unique charisma in inspiring new generations of oncologists to be sensitive to the changing demographics and to learn to appreciate aging as a medical as well as a social, emotional, and cultural event. Thanks to Paul we now have an international society and a Journal, the NIH and the NIA have joined forces to promote funding of research in the field, the ASCO and the AACR have task forces to study the issues of cancer and aging, and the international community has become aware of the problem. With his outstanding mastery of Italian, Paul has traveled to the major cancer centers of Italy to propose studies in cancer and aging. Thanks to Paul’s influence, the French President, Mr. Chirac, made cancer in the elderly one of the research priorities in France.

In "A l’ombre de jeune filles en fleur" (Under the Shadow of Flourishing Young Women) Proust states that to be able to leave a permanent print in history, every artist must be a prophet. This definition certainly applies to Paul: his passion and his insight allowed him to recognize, before anybody else, changing trends in medicine and to illustrate these trends with the mastery of an accomplished artist. To honor and revere his memory, the SIOG has instituted a Paul Calabresi memorial lecture, to be held every year during the International Conference by a scientist or a clinician who has contributed most to the field of geriatric oncology.

REFERENCE

1. Curt GA. A "masterpiece": the life of Paul Calabresi, M.D. The Oncologist 2003;8:601.[Free Full Text]

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