Looking to gain time

Istituto Toscano Tumori Siena

Cancer can be defeated through the cooperation

The Istituto Toscano Tumori (ITT) main guidelines are to understand how to treat and prevent cancer. The ITT is a network institution located in all the Tuscany Health institutions and is involved in the prevention, research and assistance in the oncology field. The network system, created in 2005, was built to satisfy all the patients’ needs in order they can receive the best integrated therapies near their own residence, thanks to the different expertise available on the territory. The ITT is based on three principles: unificated managment system, same therapeutic workup, presence of specialized centres for cancer therapy.
The ITT scientific and executive board, directed by Gianni Amunni, Professor of obstetrics and ginecology, is located in Florence and established a Core Research Laboratory which represents the focus of the ITT research activity on cancer and its origins. The Core Research Laboratory is made up of five units: three of them are located in the ITT headquarter in Florence, the other two are one in Siena and one in Pisa.
Mario Chiariello, responsible of Siena ITT Core Research Laboratory, explains in his interview the activities and projects of the organization he manages: from one side basic research in the oncology field in order to understand the reasons for the onset of human tumors, also the rare ones (testicle and chronic myeloid leukemia); on the other side the production on nanoparticles able to “hit” the different tumors in a specific way. In the Core Research Laboratory, scientists are involved in the creation of nanostructures able to identify and destroy tumors by carrying specific drugs or innovative contrast agents, such as gold or iron, for the diagnosis through photoacustic and magnetic resonance imaging.
The ITT also includes 16 oncological departments, one for each sanitary structure and university hospital, the Institute for the Oncology Study and Prevention (ISPO), 51 hospitals in the Tuscany Region and 20 Regional Reference Centres, structures which, for a single subject, act as reference for all the others.
The ITT work group is made up of experts involved in the research development and in the production of Clinical Recommendations valid for all regional oncological services and keep them updated.
The ITT Core Laboratory is incubated in TLS since 2008

For more information: www.ittumori.it