Dr. Filippo Pietrantonio: Life, Cinema, and Medicine | Walk and Talk with Tatevik Margaryan

Tatev Margayan: Welcome back everyone to Walk and Talk on OncoDaily. My name is Tatev Margaryan and I’m your host as always. And today we have Dr. Filippo as our guest. Dr. Filippo, can you introduce yourself?

Filippo Pietrantonio: Hi everyone. My name is Filippo Pietrantonio. I’m a joint medical oncologist in Milan, Italy.

Tatev Margayan: Okay, perfect. Dr. Filippo, we’re going to take a walk and I’m going to ask you a couple of personal and quirky questions. Okay, let’s do it.

So I do know that you are a very passionate professor in your career and you do love what you do. But if you could switch professions and do something else, what would you choose?

Filippo Pietrantonio: When I was attending a secondary school, actually my professors told me that I was perfect for philosophy. So it was a bit hard and challenging to decide at the beginning, but at the end my choice was medicine.

Tatev Margayan: Medicine won?

Filippo Pietrantonio: It won? Yeah, I think yes. I’m so good with this choice, yes.

Tatev Margayan: Okay, perfect.

Filippo Pietrantonio: Even though I wanted to start again and study philosophy in my second life, let’s say.

Tatev Margayan: We could have had a philosopher, but we had a doctor.

Filippo Pietrantonio: It’s important in medicine, I think.

Tatev Margayan: It is, absolutely it is. Okay, I have another question. Who do you call first when you have news or something to share?

Who is the go-to person?

Filippo Pietrantonio: So basically my friends, my family. So when I got news, it’s good to share with the people you love. So basically my family, my colleagues, my friends.

Tatev Margayan: So no specific person?

Filippo Pietrantonio: You mean one specific person?

Tatev Margayan: I mean the first one.

Filippo Pietrantonio: The first one? Yeah. Okay, so the first one is my sister.

But I don’t want to say that I prefer my sister to my mother, so I will say both. So none of them is disappointed.

Tatev Margayan: Okay, let’s go with both then.

Filippo Pietrantonio: Yeah.

Tatev Margayan: Okay, are you a stay-at-home person or do you like to go out a lot?

Filippo Pietrantonio: No, usually I go out.

Tatev Margayan: You do?

Filippo Pietrantonio: Yeah, usually when I’m really tired because, you know, our work sometimes is really exhausting. So sometimes we prefer to stay at home and just relax, have your cup of tea, watch movies, like normal things that every one of us normally do. Yeah.

But usually I like to go out.

Tatev Margayan: Especially when you live in Milan, lots of stuff to do out, right?

Filippo Pietrantonio: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really love to go out, restaurants, cinema. I basically go two to three times a week.

Tatev Margayan: Oh, wow.

Filippo Pietrantonio: Yeah, I love it. Theater, there are lots of things to do in Milan. If you’re going to come to Milan and visit me, it will be fun.

Tatev Margayan: Oh, I will let you know. Thank you. Okay, perfect.

Now, would you change the way that you are doing things now, life-wise or profession-wise? If you could change something in your life, what would it be?

Filippo Pietrantonio: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I would like to change something and I did it. So I’m changing house.

Tatev Margayan: You’re changing your house?

Filippo Pietrantonio: Yeah, exactly. I sold the old one just the day I fly here in Chicago. So it was a really busy day because I had to sell the house in the morning and then I flew here the same day.

So this is something that I really wanted to do. Congratulations. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

So we’re just doing the renovations in the new one. The work is not ready, so it will be probably September. So this was a big achievement for me because it’s like the dream you have.

I’m so glad you did that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For the summer time, I will stay in my friend’s house in the countryside, so it will be fun.

They will ask me because…

Tatev Margayan: They will ask you?

Filippo Pietrantonio: But yes, it will be fun, it will be fun.

Tatev Margayan: I hope you do have fun in there.

Filippo Pietrantonio: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tatev Margayan: Okay, I got another question. How do you cope with failure when you have so much experience in success, right? But there’s always failure in success.

How do you cope with it?

Filippo Pietrantonio: So our route in the everyday life is disseminated of failures. So basically, sometimes when you do our work, and for example, you do clinical, you lead clinical trials, you present the data, the conferences. Yes, it’s true.

It may seem that you have big achievements. Of course, work is not the only thing in life. So of course, we are talking about work things.

But at the end of the day, there are a lot of failures. And you basically learn how to really cope with this. And it’s an important thing because you become a better person.

So you really learn how to deal with it, how to be stronger, to do better things later on. You learn a lot. So in my opinion, this is absolutely necessary.

How could we be the person we are now without failure?

Tatev Margayan: Yeah, absolutely. Well, it’s a path, right?

Filippo Pietrantonio: There is failure, there is success.

Exactly. And sometimes it may be that you achieve good things. Some other times not.

And this is life.

Tatev Margayan: It is life. Yeah, that’s how it works, I guess. Yeah.

Okay. What aspects of your personality are you most proud of? What do you like about it?

Filippo Pietrantonio: Well, let’s say, I’m a very, let’s say, passionate, as you say, the beginning person. So I like friendship. I like laughing.

I like sometimes, it’s not superficial, but life, being alive in life. So this is something really important to me. So not taking too much the things too seriously, you know, and just accepting what it comes with a good attitude, you know?

Tatev Margayan: Yes, absolutely.

Filippo Pietrantonio: Yeah. I think I’m good at doing this.

Tatev Margayan: Is this an Italian thing?

Filippo Pietrantonio: I don’t think it is Italian.

Tatev Margayan: Because you have dolce far niente, right? Did I say it right?

Filippo Pietrantonio: It’s right, dolce far niente. Well, in Italy, we know how to enjoy life, I think. You sure do.

Yeah, but it’s not just an Italian thing. I think that is more a personal thing.

Tatev Margayan: Yeah, absolutely. That’s true. Okay.

Another question is, how do you want to be remembered?

Filippo Pietrantonio: Well, so if we think about work, I really think that I would like to be remembered, not for the things I’ve done, but for the things I left to the people I work with. So if I was able to be like a sort of mentor for them, helping them in their everyday life, giving good advices, being a person who really they can rely on, this is something that you will be remembered in the best way. So not for the achievements in the work, but for what you did for the other people.

So for the people I work with, I hope they will remember me for this much more than for the studies, the trials, the presentations, the hard work we do. So it’s more human interaction. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And when you leave a workplace, then maybe it will happen to me in the next future. I don’t know. But I would love them to remember me for this much more than other things.

Tatev Margayan: I think that’s too deep, but I do feel what you’re saying. And I do agree with you. I think every single doctor would agree with you because as much as you do on the research for the science, you are helping people.

Filippo Pietrantonio: Yeah. And also your colleagues. You’re helping the whole team.

You know that alone you can go much far.

Tatev Margayan: Yeah, you can’t do much. That’s true.

Filippo Pietrantonio: So it’s a work team and everyone in the team should be acknowledged for the work they do.

Tatev Margayan: And everyone should be appreciated.

Filippo Pietrantonio: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I think that this is the thing that really matters in life, also in the work life.

Tatev Margayan: That’s true. Thank you so much for this answer. And thank you so much for accepting our invitation.

And it was it all for today’s Walk and Talk. Thank you so much for watching. Do stay tuned for future Walk and Talks.

It was Tatev Margaryan and Dr. Filippo with you. Bye.

Filippo Pietrantonio: Bye, bye.