Austrian Breast & Colorectal Cancer Study GroupTogether with several close friends and collaborators throughout the country, the Austrian Breast & Colorectal Cancer Study Group (ABCSG) was founded in the mid 1980's. A small enterprise with one single secretary developed to be an internationally well reputed study group that has substantially contributed to therapeutical developments for the benefit of patients with breast and colorectal cancer and has helped establish novel therapy modalities.As President, I headed the ABCSG for over twenty years. The list of entailing significant scientific findings and activities include the following:
Over all these years with the ABCSG, I was guided by the principle of collegiality, understanding for my patients‘ fate and colleagues’ problems, compassionate leadership combined with transparence and democratic decision-making, clarity of thought and tight organization. Working in a group always gave me pleasure, and this has not changed, even though increasing demands may in many respects make the establishment of new projects appear considerably more complex than previously. These activities resulted in a series of internationally renowned publications. In the ABCSG as well as my other fields of work, particular attention has been paid to surgical quality control which has been accompanied e.g. by an internationally renowned increase in the rates of breast-conserving surgical interventions in Austria. These efforts are based on an active degree of interdisciplinarity between surgery and other disciplines, incl. medical oncology, gynecology, radiotherapy and pathology.
  
Austrian Society of SurgeryI served as President of the Austrian Society of Surgery (Österreichische Gesellschaft für Chirurgie, ÖGC) from 2005 to 2006. It was a particular pleasure for me to contribute to and guide the ÖGC for that period. My presidency culminated in the organization of the 47th Austrian Surgical Congress which convened in June 2006 at Vienna‘s Museumsquartier. Further details and several speeches can be found on the Society‘s homepage, as indicated above.
   Austrian Society of SenologyOn September 9, 2006, I was elected for a two-year presidency of the Austrian Society of Senology (Österreichische Gesellschaft für Senologie, ÖGS). An interdisciplinary forum, the ÖGS deals with all aspects of breast diseases and health care. The key aspects of my presidency were to elaborate guidelines for breast cancer screening and quality control for sentinel lymph node biopsy. The Senology Congress of 2009 was carried out in collaboration with the Swiss Society of Senology and took place in Vienna in my term in office.Breast Surgery InternationalI was elected President of Breast Surgery International (BSI) in 1999. This forum is a worldwide association of surgeons who chiefly address themselves to patients with diseases of the breast. BSI is integrated into the International Society of Surgery (ISS/SIC) . The first postgraduate course for breast surgeons took place on the occasion of the Society‘s 2005 Conference in Durban at which I was honored to deliver the Umberto Veronesi Lecture. Further details are available at the BSI homepage.
  One of my most essential concerns generally is to assist young colleagues from Europe and Asia in the framework of such advanced postgraduate training courses in breast surgery. Organized by BSI, the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO), the European Society of Mastology (EUSOMA) and other associations, these courses aim at making prospective breast specialists familiar with the most modern surgical techniques and treatments. Amongst others, this relates to predictive and prognostic factors, surgical breast conservation and preoperative therapy. Apart from the Durban and Montreal Conferences, such courses have recently also been offered in Kuwait, Lucknow, Budapest and Adelaide.
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At the beginning of my scientific duties at the University Clinic of Surgery, one of my
concerns was to present my own scientific findings and results to the public, while making
known the present standards of knowledge and my own perspective on various problems in the
framework of advanced training events. Over the 2001-2009 period, I held a total of 181 talks
at international events, and another 132 in Austria. These international presentations were
given in the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, the Czech Republic,
Egypt, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan,
Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Lithuania, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Scottland, Sweden,
Switzerland, Slovakia, Spain, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the USA, and Yemen.
My international lecturing activities were crowned by lectures given at the American Society
of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting (ASCO) and the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).
  
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Already at the beginning of my activities at Vienna General Hospital, it was clear to me that
relevant knowledge would primarily be disseminated in the framework of scientific publications.
I published my first paper in 1978 together with Stefan Wuketich. In the meantime, 320articles
have been issued, totalling to an overall impact factor of 857.
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American Society of Clinical OncologyThe American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) was founded in 1964 with the objective to ensure optimal levels of therapeutic quality. Today, ASCO comprises more than 20,000 medical members coming from various oncological disciplines – surgeons, specialists in internal medicine, radiologists, as well as general practitioners and care specialists. The Society is the leading institution in the field of cancer research and treatment; its annual meeting and organ, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, today are the most influential fora of oncology.European Society of Surgical OncologyThe European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO) is a cross-continental association of surgical oncologists with the aim of optimizing the standards of surgical care by means of specialist conferences and advanced training courses. Another focus of this Society is on enhancing basic and clinical research in oncology.Further activitiesApart from the societies that I served as president, I also belong to the Society of Surgeons in Vienna (Gesellschaft der Chirurgen in Wien), the Austrian Cancer Society (Austrian Cancer Society), the German Society of Senology (German Society of Senology), the German Cancer Society (German Cancer Society), the German Adjuvant Breast Cancer Group, and others. Furthermore, I was awarded honorary doctorates from Pleven Medical School in Bulgaria and St. Petersburg University, Russia. |
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St. Gallen Consensus ConferenceThe biennial ‘Primary Therapy of Breast Cancer‘ International Conference in St. Gallen, Switzerland, is Europe‘s most influential forum in terms of establishing guidelines for breast cancer treatment and diagnostics. Virtually all collaborative study groups and centers that specialize in basic and clinical research across the globe present their most relevant findings to this forum. I myself was greatly honored in 2001 to join the St. Gallen Plenum.Early Breast Cancer Trialists‘ Collaborative GroupI am also a Board Member of the Oxford-based Early Breast Cancer Trialists‘ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG). Founded in 1983, the objective of this internationally staffed institution is to generate sound insights, through combined evaluations of a multitude of clinically relevant patient data, into the efficacy of various forms of medical breast cancer treatment, incl. hormonal and cytotoxic treatment, chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy. The Group‘s results are currently validated by data accumulated from 200,000 patients treated in 400 controlled randomized trials.Breast Health Global InitiativeIn the framework of my international activities, furthermore, I am a member of the Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI). The Initiative‘s mission is to elaborate directives for breast health and cancer control for the benefit of underprivileged communities – guidelines that are evidence-based, economically feasible, and adapted to the resp. country‘s specifics. I have been participating in BHGI for several years. The Initiative was brought into being along with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and has held several conferences in Washington und New York. The next Global Summit on International Breast Health will convene in Chicago in June 2010; I shall be serving on the Scientific Advisory Board.OncopoolCoordinated from its headquarters in Nottingham, the ‘Oncopool‘ database is finally another scientific project that aims at improving the incorporation of breast cancer research results into clinical practice. The project is funded by the European Commission and is supplied by leading centers. In the future, Oncopool will become the standard database for scientific information regarding the distribution of prognostic factors, recurrence rates and survival rates in connection with breast cancer. |
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Breast CareI have been particularly pleased, since 2006, to collaborate with two German colleagues as chiefs on the Editors Board of a Journal entitled Breast Care. This English-language magazine represents a highly topical platform that serves to present and discuss all relevant aspects in connection with breast cancer.
 European Journal of CancerI also act as Breast Cancer Editor for the European Journal of Cancer (EJC), an international oncology journal that is devoted to experimental cancer research, clinical oncology, and cancer epidemiology and prevention;EJC is the official organ of a number of European scientific oncological societies, i.a. EUSOMA.World Journal of SurgeryIn 2007 I was appointed to the Editors Board of the World Journal of Surgery (WJS), the official organ of the International Society of Surgery and one of the leading surgical journals worldwide (cf. BSI). Globally renowned surgeons compose this Board. Articles in WJS deal with progress in clinical and experimental surgery, surgical training, and also socioeconomic aspects of surgical care.Further activities
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