Carlo Gambacorti-Passerini (born 1957) is an Italian oncologist and hematologist known for his contributions to cancer research. He is presently Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Milan Bicocca in Italy and Director of the Clinical Research Unit at S. Gerardo Hospital, Monza, Italy. Previously he was Senior Investigator and Head of the Oncogenic Fusion Proteins Unit at the National Cancer Institute, Milan Italy (1990–2003), Professor of Oncology and Hematology at McGill University, Montreal, Canada (2004–2007).
His main scientific contribution relates to the preclinical and clinical development of imatinib.[1] His publications between 1997 and 2000 are among the earliest original reports on this revolutionary drug. Specifically, he showed that apoptosis, or programmed cell death, was the predominant mechanism through which imatinib eliminates leukemic cells, that leukemic animals could be cured using imatinib, and that resistance to imatinib could be mediated by gene amplification of BCR-ABL1.
Dr. Gambacorti-Passerini is the Chairman of the ILTE (Imatinib Long Term side Effects, http://www.ilte-cml.org) study, an independent clinical study aimed at assessing the long term effects of imatinib in 948 CML patients worldwide, which showed for the first time that CML patients in remission have a normal life expectancy.[2]
He is also the first researcher who (in June 2010) successfully treated a patient affected by ALK+ lymphoma with an ALK inhibitor (crizotinib).[3][4]