About

The Clinic of Pathological Oncology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, was founded in July 2003 (No.901) and became part of the Organization of the General Hospital "Papageorgiou" by decision of the Board of Directors at its meeting 162/12-07-2004. The official opening of the Clinic was in September 2005.

The University Clinic of Pathological Oncology is headed by Professor Christos N. Papandreou

 

The organization of the Clinic into Units

The following specialised units operate in the Clinic:

1. Department of Outpatient Clinics (4 outpatient clinics operate daily from 8.00 am to 4.00 pm)

1. Nursing Unit (17 beds)
2. Short-term care unit (28 chairs)
3. Laboratory of Molecular Oncology

 

Statutory obligations and purpose

The Clinic of Pathological Oncology serves teaching, research and nursing needs in the field of Pathological Oncology, on issues related to the diagnosis and treatment of neoplastic diseases, as well as the complications arising from these interventions.

The scope of the Clinic includes the diagnosis, differential diagnosis and therapeutic approach of the diseases of Pathological Oncology.

The work of the Clinical Pathological Oncology Department with its specialized Units is divided into: educational, research, clinical-laboratory and clinical.

 

Clinical work

The clinical work includes the clinical diagnosis, laboratory and paraclinical investigation and therapeutic treatment with modern, internationally recognized methods, for patients who are hospitalized in the Clinic and its Units, or in other Clinics and Units of the Hospital, as well as for outpatients who come or are referred to the Outpatient Clinics of the department.

The Director, the faculty members and the Attending Physicians of the Clinic, accompanied by the Resident Physicians, visit patients in the Short Stay Unit and the Nursing Unit of the Clinic for information, supplementation, change or discontinuation of treatment or treatment of adverse side effects of chemotherapy or the disease. During these visits, which are carried out under the supervision of the Director of the Clinic, diagnostic and therapeutic problems of cases of interest are discussed.

 

Educational work

The educational work includes:

1. The education of the students of the School of Medicine, within the framework of the Department of Pathology and in collaboration with the other Departments of the School. This is carried out by the teaching-research staff and is theoretical and practical, in accordance with the School's curriculum. The students trained in the Department of Pathological Oncology and the faculty members who train them, are appointed by decision of the General Assembly of the Faculty on the recommendation of the Department of Pathology. In addition, the Director of the Clinic is the Scientific Director of the Selected Course "Pathological Oncology" which is taught to students of the first semester of the Medical School. The course aims to familiarize the student with basic concepts of Oncology. Upon completion of the course, the students will be able to summarize the main mechanisms of oncogenesis, to have basic knowledge of the epidemiology and prevention of cancer, to be able to diagnose the most common urgent and chronic problems of oncological patients and to be able to recognize the situations in which the involvement of physicians of other specialties is indicated. The course consists of 20 teaching hours in which the following modules are taught: a) Epidemiology - Recording, b) Prevention, c) Oncogenes, d) Cancer immunology, e) Basic principles of chemotherapy, g) Toxicity of chemotherapy, h) Emergency problems in Oncology, i) Paraneoplastic syndromes, j) Staging - Cancer markers, k) Invasive diseases, l) Supportive Medicines, m) Cancer and pregnancy, n) Cancer cachexia, x) End-stage patient management, o) Management of pain.
2. The training of medical residents for the acquisition of the specialty of Pathological Oncology or specialization in specific subfields of this specialty. This training is divided into practical and theoretical training. The practical part shall be aimed at teaching the art of medicine, diagnosis and treatment of diseases within the specialty. Theoretical training includes clinical and theoretical courses, lectures and practical tutorials by the faculty members, the Clinic's doctors and invited specialist speakers, both from the Department of Pathology and from other Departments, where appropriate. Education is achieved through demonstrations, discussions of interesting cases, clinicopathological correlations, literature updates, teaching visits by the Director of the Clinic and faculty members, educational conferences, roundtables and seminars, with the aim of scientific deepening in Pathological Oncology and the creation of new health care cadres.
3. The training of doctors and other scientists in the context of doctoral theses or other scientific work, following a decision of the Medical School.
4. The organisation of Postgraduate Education and Specialisation programmes.
5. The continuing Education and Retraining of Pathological Oncologists, NHS doctors and doctors, freelance professionals in the areas of interest of the Clinical Subunits of the Clinic, in order to raise the level of health services provided.

 

Research work

Research work includes the design and execution of research protocols, Clinical, Laboratory and Experimental Studies for the production of original knowledge and the publication of their results by the scientific staff of the Clinic independently or in collaboration with other faculty members or non-university researchers from Greece or abroad, as well as the support of postgraduate theses and original doctoral dissertations by young researchers.

The Director of the Clinic is a principal investigator in several phase II and III studies in breast cancer and other neoplasms, as well as in translational research protocols. He and the collaborators of the Clinic participate, either as principal investigators or as co-investigators in multicentre clinical studies on various neoplastic diseases, which are conducted within the framework of the Hellenic Cooperating Oncology Group or other international groups.

More specifically, from 2004 to 2013 the staff of the Clinic participated in 233 projects (Annex I), published in international medical journals, including Nature Genetics (3), with Impact Factor (IF): 35.53; New England Journal of Medicine (1) IF:53.29; Journal of Clinical Oncology (10) IF:18,37; Lancet (3) IF: 38,27; Lancet Oncology (1) IF:22,59 etc.

The Clinic Director's Hirsch score is 42. The number of bibliographic references referring to the Director's publications is 11,397 (Web of Knowledge)

The publications of the Clinic are posted on the following websites http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Fountzilas, www.papageorgiou-hospital.gr and www.oncologypapageorgiou.gr