Interview with Oriol Parés and Bill Heald

Zoom-In on Champalimaud: João Lourenço

I graduated in Medicine in 2001, a Radiology specialist since 2006, and I have been working in the Imaging Department of the Champalimaud Clinical Centre for about five years. I perform diagnostic exams such as ultrasound, CT and MRI, image-guided biopsies and drainage procedures, as well as advise colleagues from other specialties. I am also involved, as a Radiologist, in several ongoing research projects and clinical trials.

Interview with Amjad Parvaiz

As a young man, Amjad Parvaiz, now 54, wanted to become a “big trauma surgeon”. So after graduating from university in his home city of Lahore, in Pakistan, he moved to South Africa to do his trauma surgery training there. While in South Africa, in 1995, he says, “one of my bosses took me aside and said to me: ‘if you want to do 21st century surgery, go and learn laparoscopy.

Interview with Paulo Fidalgo

Paulo Fidalgo, 66, says that he has “two loves” at the Champalimaud Foundation: gastroenterology and oncological risk assessment. So it does not come as a surprise that he is both a gastroenterologist in the Digestive Unit of the Champalimaud Clinical Centre and the head of the Risk Assessment and Early Diagnosis Programme at this Centre.

The Lancet Breast Cancer Commission, a worldwide multidisciplinary team of leaders and patient advocates, published a few days ago a Comment article in the medical journal The Lancet calling for urgent action to ensure treatment equity for women with breast cancer no matter who they are and where they live. Fátima Cardoso, internationally renowned Director of the Breast Unit at the Champalimaud Foundation, is one of the authors and representative of the larger work group.

Up until the discovery of the bacteria Helicobacter pylori, in 1982, diseases of the stomach were thought to be due to excess gastric acidity. Today, we know that the vast majority of stomach cancers are caused by a sustained infection by Helicobacter, and that eradicating it is enough to drastically reduce stomach cancer risk. However, it is less known that, even after the bacteria’s eradication, unhealthy diets can promote the development of gastric cancers. And what almost nobody knows is that one of the main risk factors for stomach cancer is… salt.

The Ocean Campus will involve the redevelopment of a total of 64 hectares, in Lisbon and Oeiras. With an investment of 300 million euros, from mostly private funds, the campus will create multifunctional and environmentally sustainable spaces and teaching units, and will promote technological development and innovative research.

The CF is one of the Portuguese institutions whose projects were chosen as recipients of this first edition, for their capacitation efforts at the level of clinical research.

A diagnosis of breast cancer is not only an immediate life-threatening situation. It is also a psychological shock, whose repercussions can extend well past a patient’s recovery and jeopardise the leading of a normal life in the long run. However, not everyone reacts the same way to such a radical change of circumstances, which can imply invasive clinical interventions, radiotherapy and harsh chemotherapy regimens – and later strict surveillance to watch for recurrence.