About Us

Thoracic Oncology

Dr. Andrea Billè has been a thoracic surgery consultant at Guy’s Hospital, London, since 2015, specializing in robotic surgery and thymic malignancies. He also serves as an associate professor at King’s College University. Graduating from the University of Turin, Italy, in 2005, Dr. Billè completed his general thoracic surgery training in 2011. His training included four years in Italy and one year at Guy’s Hospital in London. In July 2014, he began a clinical fellowship in thoracic surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, completing his PhD in November 2015.

Research

Research activities led by Dr. Billè focus on lung cancer, thymic malignancies, and mesothelioma, resulting in over 100 peer-reviewed publications. Notably, he served as the chair for the N stage of mesothelioma for the 9th edition of the TNM staging system. Furthermore, Dr. Billè is an active member of several international associations dedicated to studying thoracic malignancies. This includes the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS), and the International Thymic Malignancies Interest Group (ITMIG).

Pediatric Oncology

Barbara Buldini is an internationally recognized expert in the laboratory diagnosis and monitoring of pediatric acute leukemias. Since 2021, she has served as an Associate Professor at the University of Padova, Italy, and as the manager of “Leukemia Diagnosis” at the Altissima Specialità. Leading the Morphology and Flow Cytometry group at the Pediatric Onco-Hematology Laboratory, she oversees immunophenotype and multi-parametric flow cytometry-minimal residual disease (MFC-MRD) assessments for childhood acute leukemias.

Buldini has directed immunophenotyping and MFC-MRD in several significant leukemia studies, including the AIEOP-BFM ALL trials and InterALL 2010, and has been involved since 2012. As a co-leader of the AIEOP-BFM-AML Flow MRD group with Professor Dworzak, she focuses on standardizing MFC-MRD in pediatric AML. She also plays a crucial role in defining response-to-treatment immunophenotyping in pediatric AML for the European Pediatric AML Study Group.

Membership

A core member of the AIEOP-BFM Flow Network, Buldini has been instrumental in standardizing immunophenotype diagnosis and MFC-MRD since 2006. Additionally, she trains international groups in MFC techniques for monitoring MRD in ALL treatments.

Buldini is involved in major research protocols, serving on the Trial Steering Committee for AIEOP-BFM ALL and AIEOP-BFM AML. Recently, she became a member of the Federal Tumor Board and the Hema Committee for Innovative Therapies for Children with Cancer (ITCC) in France. Her commitment to education is evident through her role as a tutor in the “FlowInLab project,” a training platform developed by the University of Padua.

Buldini trained in pediatric hematology-oncology, focusing on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation at the IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, University of Pavia, during 2005-2006. She continues to coordinate various national and international projects while contributing to academic activities, including teaching pediatrics and supervising graduate and PhD students at the University of Padova.