PRA 1 | Oncology

Prof. Jacek Jassem (born in 1951) is a Professor of Clinical Oncology and Radiotherapy, Professor headed the Department of Oncology & Radiotherapy of the Medical University of Gdańsk for many years (since 1990). In 1975 he received his Ph.D., in 1987 a habilitation degree and in 1995 the title of professor. He undertook training at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden (1977) and the National Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (1989-1990 and 1994). His main scientific interests are medical oncology, specifically lung cancer and breast cancer, combined modality treatment, as well as molecular oncology. He has co-authored over 800 full articles, books and book chapters in these fields, and claimed or licensed 11 patents. The cumulated impact factor of his publications is 1960, with over 19,000 citations and h-index of 55 (Web of Science, viewed May, 2019). He is the recipient of a number of Polish and international scientific awards, including Polish Prime Minister’s Scientific Award, President of Vienna Foundation Award, Sobolewski Award of the Polish Oncological Society, Joseph W. Cullen Prevention/Early Detection Award of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Hevelius Award of the President of Gdańsk, and the Outstanding Pole Award. He is a member of the Academia Europea, European Academy of Cancer Sciences and the Polish Academy of Art and Sciences. He has served in a number of different editorial boards including Lancet Oncology, European Journal of Cancer, Cancer Treatment Reviews, Radiotherapy and Oncology and Journal of Thoracic Oncology. He is a past chairman of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Breast Cancer Group and the EORTC Executive Committee, a past chairman of the American Society of Clinical Oncology International Affairs Committee, a past member of the executive boards of European Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology and European Society of Medical Oncology and a past president of the Polish Oncological Society. Prof. Jassem is the chairman of the Central and East European Oncology Group and the Polish Cancer League. He has been involved with several nationwide public health initiatives, such as authoring the Polish anti-tobacco legislation to limit smoking in public places (introduced in 2010) and the coordination of Cancer Control Strategy for Poland 2015-2024.

Oncology

- Oncology at MUG in view of other domestic medical universities stands out significantly, being a domestic top. In the number of publications (467) MUG lies second in Poland only behind the Medical University of Poznań (625), but beating all polish medical universities in the citations number (MUG – 10,3 thousands citations, Medical University of Poznań – 7,2 thousands of citations). Citations coefficient for one MUG publication amounts 22,0 while the average coefficient for EU countries in oncology amounts 14,5;

- The vast part of MUG publications is published in very good sources. Almost 26% publications were published in the first decile of the best journals in the world. The high quality of publications is confirmed by the FWCI coefficient (1,95), which is at a significantly higher level than the other medical universities (the second university, the Medical university of Szczecin, has a result of 1,40);

- Researches in the scope of oncology in a significant part are conducted in cooperation with international facilities – over half of the publications in the years of 2012-2018 (53%) was created in the result of such cooperation. The most cooperating institutions come from the USA (101), France (60), and Great Britain (58). What is important is the fact that the cooperation has a developing character – in 2013 40% of publications was created in cooperation with authors from abroad, and in 2018 it was 62%. MUG has the strongest connections with the French universities Universite Paris-Saclay and Institut Gustave Roussy as well as with KU Leuven;

- Among MUG researchers with the highest number of publications in the years of 2012- 2018 one can find J. Jassem (118 publications), R. Dziadziuszko (46) and W. Biernat (43);

- Researches in the sphere of oncology are conducted mostly with the use of the infrastructure of University Clinical Centre (UCC) (Invasive Medicine Centre and Non-Invasive Medicine Centre) – one of the most modern clinical hospitals in Europe.