Prof. Gianni Bisogno

Curriculum Vitae

Scopus ID: 7003672935
Gianni Bisogno is Full Professor in Pediatrics and Consultant Pediatric Oncologist, Coordinator of the Solid Tumor Program and the “Laboratory for the advanced diagnostic and target discovery in rare solid tumors of children “Department of Woman’s and Child’s Health in Padova. His clinical and research activities focus mainly on childhood solid tumors. He has been Coordinator of the Italian Soft Tissue Sarcoma Committee (STSC) since 2007. Over the years, he has succeeded in empowering the group’s activities, promoting the launch of several clinical trials, and creating a multidisciplinary team that supports the activities of all Italian pediatric oncology centers by providing services for central diagnostic reviews, molecular biology characterization, real-time advice on difficult cases, and treatments not available in other Italian (or foreign) centers. As a result, nearly 100% of Italian children with Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) have been registered in the protocols coordinated by the STSC (AIEOP Registry) and the 5-year survival of patients with localized tumors has increased from 62% (RMS79 study) to over 80% (RMS2005 study).

Professor Bisogno was one of the founders of the European Pediatric Soft tissue Sarcoma Study Group (EpSSG) in 2004, the largest European organization devoted to promote research for children with soft tissue sarcoma and PI of the European trial on localized rhabdomysarcoma (RMS2005), which recently changed the RMS standard treatment demonstrating the effectiveness of maintenance chemotherapy (Selected for ASCO Plenary Section, June 2018). Experience gained with such rare tumors as pediatric sarcomas was pivotal in establishing a new collaborative scheme in 2000 called the TREP (Tumori rari in età pediatrica) project. This has been the most successful initiative in favor of children with very rare tumors (nasopharyngeal carcinoma, pediatric melanoma, pleuropulmonary blastoma, and others) that have tended to be rather neglected by the pediatric oncology community. A national network has been established, guidelines for diagnosis and treatment have been drawn up, and clinical data have been collected. A molecular biology research program has also been organized. The model created for the TREP project was subsequently adopted by other European countries and this led to the foundation of the EXPeRT (European Cooperative Study group for Pediatric rare tumors) in Padova, June 2008. All these studies have been paralleled by an effort to promote basic and translational research with a strong clinical impact. Therefore, the search for new diagnostic tools has led to the first identification of new genetic alterations like VGLL2 related fusion in spindle cells rhabdomyosarcoma, and other different prognostic biomarkers (miR-26a, IGFBP2 and others).

Prof. Bisogno is also responsible for the pediatric clinical trial office dedicated to manage studies on new drugs. He has been leader or partner in several projects supported by different institutions, including European funded projects such as EPOC, ENCCA and EXPORNET. He is the coordinator of the recently approved PARTNER, an EU funded project dedicated to create a European Registry for children with very rare tumors. His activity in the field of pediatric oncology is demonstrated by his publications, which include more than 300 international papers (total IF > 1800; H index 50) and 12 book chapters.