OncoDaily Walk and Talk with Giuseppe Saglio, hosted by Tatev Margaryan

OncoDaily Walk and Talk is a series of interviews done by Tatev Margaryan, a public health practitioner from Armenia, with various oncologists worldwide. These interviews differ in their presentation.

The name itself, “Walk and Talk,” talks for itself. The host and the guest take a nice walk while chatting about everything and anything. Interview questions are not typical for doctors, making these series quite interesting to watch.
“Walk and Talk” aims to show the world that even world-renowned medical professionals have simple and surprising sides to them. We strive to show that these people are not just great professionals but also humans, which they sometimes forget.

Giuseppe Saglio

Giuseppe Saglio is an Internal Medicine and Haematology Professor at the University of Turin. He is the director of the Department of Molecular Medicine and Targeted Therapy.

He is responsible for the Division of Internal Medicine and Haematology at San Luigi Hospital (University of Turin). He is a national representative for iCMLf (International Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Foundation).

He graduated from the University of Turin in 1975. Since then, he has studied Internal Medicine at the University of Turin (1975-1980), Haematology at the University of Milan (1980-983) and Molecular Biology at the University of Leiden (1976), Inserm-Creteil, Paris (1979), and the University of California (1983).

Tatev Margaryan

Tatev Margaryan is the coordinator of the Blood Bank of Armenia at the Yeolyan Hematology and Oncology Center. Currently, she is the project manager of OncoDaily and a patient advocate at the Institute of Cancer and Crisis.

Tatev has completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the Yerevan State University and a master’s degree in global public health from the Queen Mary University of London. She has previously worked as a psycho-oncologist at the National Center of Oncology of Armenia. She has also completed a program in the Management of Depression Disorders from Harvard Medical School.

Tatev is also an active young leader representing Armenia in many international communities, such as the Young European Ambassadors and the Global Shapers.

0:14 Introduction
1:27 A moment in life that significantly influenced Prof. Saglio
4:26 Childhood dream or goal
5:57 Dream destination
8:16 Most influential person in Prof. Saglio’s life
12:06 Prof. Saglio’s passions outside of work
15:51 Definition of success
19:13 Personal philosophy

The Transcript of OncoDaily Walk and Talk with Tatev Margaryan and Giuseppe Saglio

Tatev Margaryan: Welcome back everyone to Walk and Talk on OncoDaily.

I’m Tatev Margaryan, your host for today, and this is Dr. Giuseppe Saglio, our guest for today. Dr. Saglio, can you introduce yourself?

Giuseppe Saglio: Yes, I am 74 years old, almost in a few days. I am a Meritus professor of hematology and internal medicine at the University of Turin.

I retired from clinical responsibilities just two, three years ago, but I am still active in research and organizing meetings and other academic activities that I’m still performing around the world. In one word, I’m very active, I quite work active.

I’m working, I would say, doing what is really pleasant for me. But I would say this keeps me busy for most of my days.

Tatev Margaryan: Understood. Dr. Saglio, we’re gonna take a little bit of a walk and then I’m gonna ask you a couple of questions, please, okay? Let’s go ahead.

So, for the first question, can you share a pivotal moment in your life that significantly influenced who you are today?

Giuseppe Saglio: Oh, this is quite a difficult answer.

I would say that I studied medicine not because I was really passionate about medicine at the beginning, but mainly because of my friends.

I’ve always been a social person, and they just decided to go to the faculty of medicine. So, I started medicine. The first years were quite, I would say, boring because you have to study anatomy, biochemistry, and so on. But then the first time that I entered the hospital and I was taking care of… I would say it was my first experience of direct contact with the people, the patients, and so on. This made me decide to become a good clinical doctor. And so, this was probably the starting point of my career.

Then, I was always being curious about many aspects of life, and therefore I decided also to do research. And I was performing clinical activity during the day, but starting at 3, 4 p.m., I was working in the lab.

And my first interest was for hemoglobinopathies at the time, which was a problem for Italy, not anymore because of transplantation and so on. But at that time, it was a problem. So, I started to work on thalassemia and so on.

And at the time, I met one person that for me is particularly important, whose name is Matsa, who was not famous as a researcher, but he was very human person with a lot of… And he tolerated my quite… I would say, I do not know how to say, my character, which is not always easy. And it’s probably his main merit. But certainly, the example of his attitude to take care of the patients and so on, this was very important for my decision in my life.

Tatev Margaryan: That’s quite the history that you’ve got there, especially about character.

Giuseppe Saglio: Yes, character was… I have a quite strong character, I would say.

Tatev Margaryan: And so you are Italian, it says everything, doesn’t it?

Giuseppe Saglio: Not always, but it was really good with me because he was able to tolerate my intolerance sometimes. And so, this was good for me. Very good.

Tatev Margaryan: Okay, thank you for that.

Second question: Can you describe a goal or a dream that you had since childhood, and have you made any progress towards achieving it?

Giuseppe Saglio: Certainly. I’ve always been attracted by traveling and knowing other countries and populations. Because when I was a child, I was not eating so much, and my mother was putting in front of me an atlas. And looking at the atlas, indeed, I was eating.

And that’s why I started to dream about these places. And of course, at that time, there were not all the facilities that we have in our days, all the movies and so on.

So, we had the pictures of small postcards with all these places. And so, I was dreaming of visiting these places. And I succeeded in visiting most parts of the world, I would say, in different countries.

And sometimes I’m saying, “Okay, God, please stop it, because I don’t want to travel so much anymore.” But it’s not true because there are always new places to visit, new persons to meet, and so on.

This is my dream, just to have contacts with people and cultures, different cultures.

Tatev Margaryan:  And to follow on that, We have actually a question that’s quite similar to what you’re saying. Is that, do you have a dream destination?

Giuseppe Saglio: Yes, but I would say that not particularly. I find interesting every place in the world, even places which apparently are not so immediately attractive. But always there is something to discover, always something just to know, and just to make, and to make you think about how adaptable is the humankind in different situations. And so, going from Alaska to the desert, and so on, it’s really totally different.

But the people living in there, there is something which is common to all humankind that we need, of course, to develop and to implement for the future. And I’m suffering a little bit seeing that there are wars or incomprehension. So, I’m saying, why don’t we make a football match and decide about something peacefully? Maybe not so peacefully, not so violent, or killing people, like work.

Tatev Margaryan: I do understand what you’re coming from, and I join you in your words. Let’s hope that the future is more peaceful.

Giuseppe Saglio: Absolutely. We were hoping this in the ’70s and ’80s, with the peace sign and everything. Unfortunately, in the last 10, 15 years, it has not been so. Hopefully, the future is brighter.

Tatev Margaryan: Yes, absolutely. Okay, let’s go ahead then. So, let’s come a bit to personal.

Who has been the most influential person in your life, and why?

Giuseppe Saglio: Okay, I think certainly a very influential person has been my father. He was a really peaceful character, and he lived a very long life. He died when he was 99 years old. And he was always… One of the things that he was saying, “Why are you so upset now? Keep it calm. And what do you want to gain by being upset?”

So, you have to try to find a solution to what you are facing at the moment, but without being so angry about some persons and so on. So, he was really a philosopher, I would say. And so, he had a very… And as my mother died when I had to take care of him, my mother was younger than my father, but she died well before. So, I had to… I was the only son, I had to take care of him.

So, he transmitted to me this type of philosophy, I would say, that he was really a kind person who was… I would say, I was knowing very well them. And when my father was saying, “Listen to me one moment, I have to ask you something,” I always understood immediately that he was asking something for the friends, the family, and so on.

And I had to go. And so, it was time to leave. Not time to leave now because then they could ask me, of course, what they need. But this attitude towards, I would say, the social life, this attitude towards the other, the respect for the other persons and their problems, certainly is something that for my education was very important.

Tatev Margaryan: Understood. Social life is quite important, and I think it’s coming from social, cultural perspectives as well because Italians, also Armenians, Spanish people, right, we are very social. Yes, absolutely, in our character. So, it’s a really big part of our everyday life. And also, as you said, philosophy.

Giuseppe Saglio: Yes, philosophy. This is true. But I think that everybody in the world sometimes is… Only question of manifestation, what you are feeling. But there are some shy people and other people. But everyone is generally… I would say, there are exceptions, very, very social. And I think absolutely. I mean, in a different way maybe, but there are every sociality is, I would say, the essential of the humankind.

Tatev Margaryan: Well, yes, we strive in community. Community, yes. Okay, thank you for that. So, we talked a little bit about passions and life philosophy. So, here goes another question about that.

What are you really passionate about outside of work, of course?

Giuseppe Saglio: I like very much to see movies. Not movies, are commercial movies, but I like to see movies which are transmitting or providing some messages about life and so on. And movies from also not only the classical Italian or European movies, but also movies from every part of the world, from Korea, from Iran, from India, and so on.

There can be movies which are telling about life and so on. At the end, what you are seeing is that there is a common background in all the people, independently from which is something which is essential for our life. And this is the… I would say, the feeling is the same among all the populations, all the people. And on the other side, I would say it was the same even a thousand years before.

For example, if you go to the Egyptian Museum, we have a beautiful Egyptian Museum, one of the most famous Egyptian museums in the world. And if you look at what… You can say that there are no differences between the feelings of the Egyptians and our feelings in our days. So, we are exactly the same.

Of course, all the environment is totally different and so on. But also, we sometimes hope for a continuous life. Yes, we like to believe that, and of course, we like just to realize something in our life and to take care of the children. There are books for children also in the museum, as well as toys for children and so on.

So, all these things are making us a strong connection between the past and the present and shared by all humanity, I think.

Tatev Margaryan: Well, we cannot plan our future without knowing the past, right?

Giuseppe Saglio: Absolutely, this is very, very important. And I really regret the fact that sometimes I would say the level of our historical… But it’s not only history, what we say, the cultural life, development of culture around the world is not so well established in our… In the school, in our days, with respect to what we had in the past.

Our education was, I would say, a little bit more exclusive, if you want. Not a little bit more deep in, I would say, in just looking at different aspects of the culture. So, now there is a spread, but most of the people do not know about history, do not know… So, they cannot appreciate, unfortunately.

Tatev Margaryan: Yes, absolutely. I do agree with that. But I think that by understanding this, by understanding that the past, our history, they play such a huge role in our present and future, we will understand that we have to go back so we can go forward.

Giuseppe Saglio: Yes. Let’s hope it works out.

Tatev Margaryan: Another question is, do you have… What does success mean to you personally? How do you measure it, as someone who has already… You said that you retired from clinical work and you’ve traveled the world and you’ve done so much, and you’re still doing so much. So, we can say that you are quite successful in life and work. So, what does it mean to you?

Giuseppe Saglio: I do not know exactly. This is a difficult question to answer. What does it mean, success? Yes, it is. I would say that I would like to establish this attitude that I wanted to establish. This is in my nature.

I would say that it’s just to make people talk in to be a sort of messenger between different persons. And when I succeed in doing this, I feel quite happy.

If I can find a solution and to establish a relationship between people that apparently are enemies and so on, I feel satisfied. And this is for me a personal success.

Tatev Margaryan: It’s a really nice way of putting it, actually. Never really thought about it, about the shepherd dog and everything.

Giuseppe Saglio: Yes, I was observing this dog that I had. Fortunately, it died already some years ago. But it was… It was coming, it was really upset by the fact that we were not walking all together. I said that I’m a little bit similar.

It was its life mission. It was living to do it right. But this was something that my professor, when I was a young student, was saying to me, “Please think carefully of what you are want to do in this situation, if to make a strike or to go to school and so on.

Because your decision will influence a great number of other people. So, if you have a great responsibility in this, please take your time and think carefully. I don’t say do it or not do it, but think carefully. Because your decision is influential.”

Tatev Margaryan: This brings us to the original idea that we started with: everything is connected, everyone is connected to each other. That’s a wonderful way to view it, actually. That was something fresh for me.

Yeah, so I think the final question for today is: Do you have a personal philosophy, something or an idea that you live by?

Giuseppe Saglio: This is another very difficult question. As you were a philosophical person, I think you will find an answer there. Yes, no, no, I think that my personal philosophy is that I like just to understand. So I’m not really, I would say, severe with the other persons because sometimes I’m saying, if I am in this situation, what would be my behavior?

Something which is, can call comp and compassion for the human life that sometimes is not so happy for a certain person. So I do not like to judge the people sometimes for what they are doing and so on because I’m not in the same situation, I’m not the same person, and so on.

So I feel a little bit disappointed where there are people who are saying, “Oh, this guy is not doing well,” and so on. Maybe he’s not doing well, we can, but we have to try to understand what the reasons why. You never know what they’re going through, right?

They’re going through, so sort of with a Latin word, you can say sort of compassion, of compassion, or also Misericordia, which means knowing how difficult is the human life and the difficulties of each person.

Probably we must try to understand and to be patient and also, I would say, to make to understand exactly the other persons which are in from the and try to communicate with them.

This is not the philosophy of it is

Tatev Margaryan: No, it is, of course, empathy. It’s all about empathy, right?

Giuseppe Saglio: Empathy, yes. This is why I think that I am attracted, I’m not a, I am religious in my opinion. I’m not, I would say, believing so many things about religion but my education is just in this direction, just to be compliant with the humankind and so on. And maybe if I can to provide support.

Tatev Margaryan: It is a wonderful philosophy I think and by talking with you couple of minutes and having a walk with you I think I what I understood is that we have a lot to learn from you. People with similar life lessons and experiences and philosophies.

Giuseppe Saglio: But you ask me very difficult questions. Maybe you have to observe in real life. Maybe theory is one thing, then real life and behavior in real life may be different sometimes, you know?

Tatev Margaryan: Maybe, maybe. But I thank you so much for this interview and all of your very deep answers. And I wish you all the best. And thank you so much for your experience, the work that you’re doing for the world, and for today.

Giuseppe Saglio: Thanks to you too. Very happy for this. Thank you.

Tatev Margaryan: This was all for today. 

Giuseppe Saglio: You made me think about many things.

Tatev Margaryan: I do hope so. This was it for today, everyone. This was Walk and Talk on OncoDaily. I am Tatev Margaryan, and this is Dr. Giuseppe Saglio. See you soon.

Previous episodes of OncoDaily Walk and Talk with Tatev Margaryan

Episode 1: Yelena Janjigian

Episode 2: John Gore

Episode 3: Philip Philip, Celine Philip

Episode 4: Maite Gorostegui

Episode 5: Enrique Soto

Episode 6: Dinesh Pendharkar