Paolo A. Ascierto: I owe it every day to Giuseppe, to Carla, to Rosina, to Gabriele, to the many who are still part of that 50% who are less lucky

Quoting Paolo A. Ascierto, Director Department of Melanoma, Cancer Immunotherapy, Development Therapeutics at the National Cancer Institute IRCCS G. Pascale Foundation on LinkedIn:

“Giuseppe was 17 years old, he passed away around Christmas, and who ever forgets that Christmas, it was like losing a son, a brother, a father. Before Giuseppe there was Carla, today she would have been 58 years old. She was Adolfo’s sister, my friend met during the year of service in the Air Force, whose wedding I later witnessed and with whom I spent my life it intersects cyclically, as often happens in ancient feelings. Carla passwd away in 1999. Before that moment she made and gave me a crochet painting which is now in my department, on the first floor of the IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori Fondazione G Pascale, Napoli, Italy. Rosina died very young. I tried to save her with the vaccine, the Cancer vax, for which we had so much hope. At the time I thought it could prove to be a cure that could, if not completely eradicate, at least block the tumor. Rosina always brought me tagliatelle when she came to visit and before dying her brother confided to me one day that she had had a thought for me even on her deathbed. Every time I eat tagliatelle I think of her. I still can’t mention Gabriele without my voice getting caught in my throat. He died in 2020 for a metastatic melanoma. He was 17 years old and he passed away within a few weeks. Gabriele is part of that 50 percent of patients that we still cannot save and for whom science can and must still do a lot.

To Gabriele, but more ultimately to all my patients who passed away, I dedicate these 30 years of my life at Pascale. It was October 28, 1993 when I was hired as medical director in this Institute. They have been 30 intense years. Thirty years of bitter defeats, but also of great personal and above all professional satisfaction, of travel around the world in desperate search of that drug which today saves, yes, I can say with pride “it saves”, the lives of 50% of patients suffering from melanoma. A percentage that still cannot be enough for us and for which I continue to work, together with my collaborators, with the same enthusiasm as when I joined Pascale. I owe it every day to Giuseppe, to Carla, to Rosina, to Gabriele, to the many who are still part of that 50% who are less lucky.”

Source: Paolo A. Ascierto/LinkedIn.