Patrizia Paterlini-Bréchot: the Italian top cancer fighter

Patrizia Paterlini-Bréchot has become a big name in the fight against cancer. She has recently published a ground-breaking book entitled "How to kill Cancer", giving voice to her recent findings, which could revolutionize cancer treatments and prevention techniques. Today, as reported by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, this lady is not only a great oncologist but also a university professor. She was born in Italy (Reggio Emilia) and graduated in Modena, winning the prize for the best thesis in medicine of the year 1978.

Determined to become a great doctor, she started working with Mario Coppo, defined in her book as the "infallible master". In the early stages of her career, she met her "patient zero": a man affected by pancreas cancer who was about to die. Patrizia tried everything to save him while sharing the very last moments of his life. She still remembers the terrified look of that man who, without talking, showed his deep disappointment in the young doctor not able to save him.

After this terrible experience, Professor Paterlini-Bréchot decided to devote her life to the fight against cancer. She, therefore, went to Paris for an internship in molecular biology with the team of Professor Christian Bréchot. They soon fell in love and Patrizia permanently moved to Paris.

In the French capital, Professor Paterlini-Bréchot continued her research that led her to the ISET (Isolation by Size of Epithelial Tumour Cells) test. The latter stands out as an innovative tool to identify tumour cells in the blood. In fact, through a simple blood test, it is possible to check whether the body is developing cancer, even if the mass is not yet detectable by CAT scan or x-ray. This test would allow the person to save a lot of time, essential to fight cancer with good results.

ISET actually costs 486? and it is available, representing a great achievement that could lead Prof. Paterlini-Bréchot to the Nobel prize one day.

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