https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4726-2692
With the passing of Dr. Claudio Maurizio Pacella in January 2020, the medical community has lost one of its prominent members and esteemed colleagues.
Dr. Pacella graduated in 1973 from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Rome, where he subsequently completed his residency in radiology. Since the beginning of his career, due to his high level of empathy with patients, he focused his clinical attention on interventional radiology, striving ceaselessly to perfect therapeutic strategies that were less and less invasive for patients. In the 1980s, he started the percutaneous treatment of liver tumors [Citation1], and since then he continued to apply minimally-invasive, image-guided treatment to the care of his patients. He was among the first in the world to apply ultrasound-guided treatment in patients with thyroid nodules [Citation2,Citation3], and made outstanding contributions to the widespread use of minimally-invasive treatments in patients with thyroid diseases.
With an ever-inquiring mind, sensitivity, and with acute intelligence, he started investigating the possibility of applying laser energy in the treatment of cancer patients, and his studies and experiments led to a technique for ultrasound-guided liver laser ablation, which he first successfully applied in the treatment of patients with liver metastases [Citation4]. Following this, he investigated the application of laser to thyroid tissue [Citation5,Citation6], and developed and described a technique for laser ablation of thyroid nodules, which is now considered as current best practice for these treatments. Highly devoted to the dissemination of knowledge and the personal growth and career development of younger colleagues, he unfailingly showed immense dedication and invested indefatigable energy in teaching and education, being responsible for fellowship training in Italy and traveling extensively throughout the world to visit and assist colleagues at the beginning of their practice with laser ablation. Several physicians worldwide started their practice in laser ablation thanks to the assistance and teachings of Dr. Pacella, and a multitude of patients benefitted from his groundbreaking discoveries.
Following on from Pacella’ studies, laser ablation is today applied in the treatment of a variety of diseases, including not only liver and benign thyroid nodules, but also kidney, pancreatic and thyroid tumors and, most recently benign, and malignant prostate disease [Citation7–14].
Even after his retirement, Dr. Pacella continued to assist colleagues and to participate in the scientific community providing exceptional insights into the potential of application of thermal ablations to the care of patients. In particular, in recent years, he developed a new technique for the treatment of benign prostatic adenomas, which with the application of laser through the transperineal route seems to provide a new minimally-invasive effective treatment strategy for patients [Citation13,Citation14]. Always extremely active and with an incredible amount of energy, he recently participated in the foundation of a study group on the application of minimally-invasive treatments to the thyroid [Citation15], and proposed to the international community a standardized terminology to be used in this field [Citation16]. Furthermore, he was among the first to propose thermal ablation as a first-line treatment modality for the treatment of benign thyroid nodules [Citation17]. His recent book on the various applications of image-guided laser ablations, already represents a milestone in the field of thermal ablations [Citation18].
The community of physicians who use the laser thermal ablation method loses its tireless guide. From today, the work of all of us will feel an enormous gap that was filled by a teacher, a Counselor and, above all, a friend. It will be everyone’s responsibility to ensure that the outstanding scientific and cultural heritage left by Dr. Pacella continues to grow and bear fruit. We will all miss him immensely and he will never be forgotten as a pioneer and as an amiable, good-natured, creative, and passionate person.
Our deepest sympathy and thoughts are with his wife and his family. Together with them, his many colleagues and friends will hold Dr. Claudio Maurizio Pacella in grateful memory.
Goodbye Claudio, we will miss you.
Division of Interventional Radiology, European Institute of Oncology, IRCCS, Milan, Italy;
Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
[email protected]
Giovanni Gambelunghe
Endocrine Unit, Clinica Liotti, Perugia, Italy
[email protected]
References
- Pacella CM, Papini E, Bizzarri G, et al. Hepatocellular carcinoma: magnetic resonance imaging after ultrasonically guided percutaneous alcohol treatment. Preliminary report. Ital J Gastroenterol. 1990;22(3):136–141.
- Papini E, Panunzi C, Pacella CM, et al. Percutaneous ultrasound-guided ethanol injection: a new treatment of toxic autonomously functioning thyroid nodules? J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1993;76(2):411–416.
- Papini E, Pacella CM, Verde G. Percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI): what is its role in the treatment of benign thyroid nodules? Thyroid. 1995;5(2):147–150.
- Pacella CM, Bizzarri G, Ferrari FS, et al. Interstitial photocoagulation with laser in the treatment of liver metastasis. Radiol Med. 1996;92(4):438–447.
- Pacella CM, Bizzarri G, Guglielmi R, et al. Thyroid tissue: US-guided percutaneous interstitial laser ablation—a feasibility study. Radiology. 2000;217(3):673–677.
- Pacella CM, Bizzarri G, Spiezia S, et al. Thyroid tissue: US-guided percutaneous laser thermal ablation. Radiology. 2004;232(1):272–280.
- Sartori S, Mauri G, Tombesi P, et al. Ultrasound-guided percutaneous laser ablation is safe and effective in the treatment of small renal tumors in patients at increased bleeding risk. Int J Hyperth. 2018;35(1):1–7.
- Di Matteo FM, Saccomandi P, Martino M, et al. Feasibility of EUS-guided Nd:YAG laser ablation of unresectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Gastrointest Endosc. 2018;88(1):168.e1–174.e1.
- Pacella CM, Mauri G, Achille G, et al. Outcomes and risk factors for complications of laser ablation for thyroid nodules: a multicenter study on 1531 patients. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2015;100(10):3903–3910.
- Pacella CM, Mauri G, Cesareo R, et al. A comparison of laser with radiofrequency ablation for the treatment of benign thyroid nodules: a propensity score matching analysis. Int J Hyperth. 2017;33(8):911–919.
- Pacella CM, Bizzarri G, Magnolfi F, et al. Laser thermal ablation in the treatment of small hepatocellular carcinoma: results in 74 patients. Radiology. 2001;221(3):712–720.
- Mauri G, Cova L, Ierace T, et al. Treatment of metastatic lymph nodes in the neck from papillary thyroid carcinoma with percutaneous laser ablation. Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol. 2016;39(7):1023–1030.
- Patelli G, Ranieri A, Paganelli A, et al. Transperineal laser ablation for percutaneous treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia: a feasibility study. Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol. 2017;40(9):1440–1446.
- Pacella CM, Patelli G, Iapicca G, et al. Transperineal laser ablation for percutaneous treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia: a feasibility study. Results at 6 and 12 months from a retrospective multi-centric study. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis. 2019. doi: 10.1038/s41391-019-0196-4.
- Mauri G, Pacella CM, Papini E, et al. Proceedings of the first Italian conference on thyroid minimally invasive treatments and foundation of the Italian research group for thyroid minimally invasive procedures Int J Hyperth. 2018;34(5):603–605.
- Mauri G, Pacella CM, Papini E, et al. Image-guided thyroid ablation: proposal for standardization of terminology and reporting criteria. Thyroid. 2019;29(5):611–618.
- Papini E, Pacella CM, Solbiati LA, et al. Minimally-invasive treatments for benign thyroid nodules: a Delphi-based consensus statement from the Italian minimally-invasive treatments of the thyroid (MITT) group. Int J Hyperth. 2019;36:376–382.
- Pacella CM, Jiang T, Mauri G. Image-guided laser ablation. Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland AG.