Dziadziuszko Honored With Heine H. Hansen Award During European Lung Cancer Conference

Rafal Dziadziuszko, MD, PhD

Rafal Dziadziuszko, MD, PhD

Rafal Dziadziuszko, MD, PhD, a global leader in clinical thoracic oncology, was recently honored with the 2017 Heine H. Hansen (HHH) Award by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC).

Dziadziuszko received his award and gave a keynote lecture during the 2017 European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC), held May 5 to 8 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Named after Heine H. Hansen, past president of ESMO, a founder of IASLC, and a mentor in the field of lung cancer, the HHH award recognizes a lung cancer investigator who has made a significant contribution to lung cancer research and education on an international level.

"Dziadziuszko is a global leader with extensive international collaborations and a true follower of the ideas of Heine Hansen. Dziadziuszko is a brilliant researcher, a real clinical doctor who cares for his patients, and with a personality, which makes him very much liked and respected all over the world," said Fred R. Hirsch, ELCC Steering Committee representative for the IASLC.

Dziadziuszko is currently deputy head and national consultant in radiation oncology in the Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy at the Medical University of Gdansk, and a professor at the Medical University of Gdansk. He is also a member of ESMO and IASLC, and a previous member of the ESMO Educational Committee (2011-2016), the ESMO National Representative for Poland (2009-2011), and the IASLC Pathology Committee (2011-2013).

Dziadziuszko, vice chairman of the Central and East European Oncology Group, has helped organize several academic clinical research studies in Poland and Central Europe. His professional interests include lung cancer translational and clinical research.

Dziadziuszko completed his training in radiotherapy and medical oncology at the Medical University of Gdansk. He subsequently completed a translational cancer research fellowship, funded by IASLC and the International Union Against Cancer, at the University of Colorado Cancer Center.

His current work includes identification of novel molecular targets for early lung cancer trials, evaluation of novel radiotherapy strategies in thoracic malignancies, and research on lung cancer screening programs.

"I met Heine Hansen on several occasions early in my career when he participated in events in Poland and Central-Eastern Europe to motivate us to join pan-European collaboration. This was before the iron curtain and shortly after, when access to international research projects was limited. He believed that our region needed to be fully integrated with European lung cancer research and motivated young oncologists to broaden their research capabilities. I feel I am one of his followers to realize this task," Dziadziuszko said.