UPMC Brings Most Advanced Radiosurgery to Cancer Patients in Rome

1/15/2013

Already known for its world-class transplant care in Italy, UPMC today officially opened the Advanced Radiosurgery Center of Excellence at San Pietro Fatebenefratelli (FBF) Hospital in Rome, where it will offer patients precisely delivered, high-dose radiation to treat the most challenging tumors.

The new center, located on the campus of the 500-bed San Pietro FBF Hospital, will be the first to offer stereotactic radiosurgery to cancer patients in Rome and the surrounding region, where this treatment currently is not available.

“Starting with the establishment of ISMETT in 1996 to perform transplants in Palermo, UPMC has a long history of working with the Italian government and other partners to bring state-of-the-art health care to the people of Italy,” said Bruno Gridelli, M.D., medical and scientific director of UPMC’s International and Commercial Services Division and of ISMETT. “The creation of this radiosurgery center at San Pietro will give more patients access to innovative and effective treatments close to home.”

Building on its expertise in managing the largest cancer treatment network in the United States, as well as two cancer centers in Ireland, UPMC will manage and operate the facility on the San Pietro campus in the northwest of Rome.

“UPMC is a pioneer in using the most advanced radiosurgery to treat patients for cancers in a way that is designed to minimize disabling side effects while maximizing patient survival. With the ‘Novalis powered by TrueBeam STx’ system, one of the most advanced linear accelerators, we can offer the same treatments that have proven so effective for our patients at UPMC CancerCenter in Pittsburgh,” said Dwight E. Heron, M.D., vice chairman of radiation oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.

UPMC was the first to establish a multi-organ transplant program in Sicily. It also was the first to bring intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) to Ireland, where it now performs the most radiosurgery treatments annually in that country. These efforts are part of a global footprint that now includes UPMC operations or services in China, Singapore, Kazakhstan and Japan, as well as Italy and Ireland.

In addition to ISMETT, a public-private partnership with the Sicilian government, and the UPMC San Pietro FBF Advanced Radiosurgery Center of Excellence, UPMC’s operations in Italy soon will include the management of a new government-funded Biomedical Research and Biotechnology Center (BRBC) near Palermo. Expected to open in 2016, the BRBC will put Italy in the forefront of drug discovery, vaccine development, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, molecular imaging, and computational and structural biology, while serving as a catalyst for economic development throughout the region.

“We are pleased to expand our presence in Italy, where our excellent physicians and staff are transforming the way that health care is delivered. By sharing our medical and technological expertise around the world, we are improving the lives of patients while generating revenue that is reinvested into our medical and research mission,” said Charles Bogosta, president of UPMC’s International and Commercial Services Division.