Docenti

Umberto Cillo

Umberto Cillo

Full Professor

Telefono: +39 049 8212236

E-mail: cillo@unipd.it

  • Since November 2011: Full Professor of General Surgery and Director of the Hepatobiliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation Unit, Department of Surgical, Oncological and Gastroenterological Sciences, University of Padua, Padua - Italy.
  • 2004 - 2011: Associate Professor and Director and Director of the Hepatobiliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation Unit, Department of Surgical, Oncological and Gastroenterological Sciences, University of Padua, Padua - Italy
  • 2002-2004: Associate Professor of General Surgery, University of Padua, Italy.
  • 1998-2002: Research Professor, Surgical Clinic I, Department of General Surgery and Organ Transplantation, University of Padua, Italy
  • Since 1999 Supervisor of the Research Lab, Surgical Clinic I Department of General Surgery and Organ Transplantation, University of Padua, Italy
  • 1992-1998: Attending Physician at the Institute of Surgical Clinic I Department of General Surgery and Organ Transplantation, University of Padua, Italy
  • 1994: Residency in Emergency Surgery at the University of Padua (cum laude).
  • 1990-1992: Research Associate in Transplantation at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania - USA) - School of Medicine, Institute of Transplantation, directed by Prof. Thomas E. Starzl, Supervisor John J. Fung.
  • 1990: Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Internal Medicine of the University of Monaco (Germany) (Supervisor: Prof. U. Sauerbruch): focus on biliary lithotripsy.
  • 1989: M.D. Degree at Padova University, School of Medicine (cum laude)

Positions:
Director, Hepatobiliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation Unit
Department of Surgical, Oncologic and Grastroenterologic Sciences “P.G. Cevese”
University Hospital of Padua, Padua, Italy

Research interests and career highlights

Prof Cillo leads, since 2004 a high volume Liver Transplant and Hepatobiliary Surgery Center in Italy. He performed as first surgeon or as tutor over 900 liver transplantations in the adult settings, including split, auxiliary and LDLT and more than 100 pediatric liver transplants (30% <10 kg). He regularly performs interventions of hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery including major procedures with a particular attitude to the laparoscopic approach (liver resections and ablations - more than 1500 interventions of middle/major hepatobiliary surgery as first surgeon in the last 10 years). 
First to perform auxiliary liver transplants in Italy (2007) and to succeed nationally in the autotransplantation of the liver (ex situ/ex situ liver resections -10 cases performed with no perioperative mortality) . AGENAS (National Agency for Health Regional Services) reported that in 2015 (last report) the Padova University Hepatobiliary and Liver Transplant Unit classified first in Italy for number of hepatobiliary oncologic surgical interventions.
Since 2017 Prof Umberto Cillo is the President of the Italian Society of Organ and Tissue Transplantation (S.I.T.O.) and he’s currently member of the Council of European Society  for Organ Transplantation (ESOT). Since 2011 to 2015 he coordinated the liver allocation remodeling in Italy through a process including four methodologically stringent consensus conferences and a public appraisal. The result of the process is the present liver allocation model based on a new scoring system (ISO score) and a blended principle approach. He was also part of the national scientific board that produced the italian guidelines for the clinical management of patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma (2015 and 2017) and since 2014 he is coordinator of the PDTA  Tumor liver and biliary tree, Veneto. He received fundings from Padova University, National Center for Transplantation, MIUR, Veneto Region and European Community
He has been Principal or Co-investigator in 36 multicentric national and international scientific studies since 2008 (all clinical trials were conducted according to the ICH/GCP requirements and project promotors specific standards). First author or co-author of 273 ISI publications, 4 Monographs on liver transplantation and Hepato-Pancreatic-Biliary Surgery, 18 Chapters.

The TOTAL Impact factor (JCR) is 1213,626
H-index 40 (Scopus)
The H- index is 48 (Google Scholar)


Specific Basic and Clinical/Research Interests:

  • Hepatocarcinoma (clinical and molecular-biological prognostic factors, liquid biopsy, Transplantation and therapeutic benefit, downstaging for LT, laproscopic resection and ablation, recurrence stratification and management)
  • Organ allocation in Liver Transplantation (Equity, allocation scoring systems)
  • Colo-rectal methastases (Liver Transplantation, chemiohyperthermia, two stage innovative approaches)
  • Cholangiocarcinoma (prognostic factors, resection in intermediate/advanced cases, Liver transplantation)
  • Immunosuppressive therapy (new immunosuppressors, minimization, tolerance)
  • Ischemia-Reperfusion (normo-hypothermic machine perfusion, total hepatic vascular exclusion in the pig and small animal models)
  • Hepatic Regeneration (signal transduction, GH-IGF axis)
  • Virtual Hepatic Reality (hepatic reconstruction and pre-operatory planning, virtual reality in hepatic laparoscopic surgery)
  • Tissue Engineering (scaffolds) and mesenchimal stem cell physiology

Five key publications

Cillo U, Vitale A, Polacco M, Fasolo E. Liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma through the lens of transplant benefit. Hepatology. 2017 May;65(5):1741-1748. doi: 10.1002/hep.28998. Epub 2017 Mar 16. Review. PubMed PMID: 28010048.

Representing Subnormothermic Machine Perfusion in Fatty Livers: The Complete Picture? Vairetti M, Ferrigno A, Gringeri E, Cillo U. Am J Transplant. 2017 May;17(5):1421-1422. doi: 10.1111/ajt.14196. Epub 2017 Feb 14. No abstract available.  PMID:28066998

Cillo U, Burra P, Mazzaferro V, Belli L, Pinna AD, Spada M, Nanni Costa A, Toniutto P; I-BELT (Italian Board of Experts in the Field of Liver Transplantation). A Multistep, Consensus-Based Approach to Organ Allocation in Liver Transplantation: Toward a "Blended Principle Model". Am J Transplant. 2015  Oct;15(10):2552-61. doi: 10.1111/ajt.13408. Epub 2015 Aug 14. PubMed PMID: 26274338.

Villa E, Critelli R, Lei B, Marzocchi G, Cammà C, Giannelli G, Pontisso P, Cabibbo G, Enea M, Colopi S, Caporali C, Pollicino T, Milosa F, Karampatou A, Todesca P, Bertolini E, Maccio L, Martinez-Chantar ML, Turola E, Del Buono M, De  Maria N, Ballestri S, Schepis F, Loria P, Enrico Gerunda G, Losi L, Cillo U. Neoangiogenesis-related genes are hallmarks of fast-growing hepatocellular carcinomas and worst survival. Results from a prospective study. Gut. 2016May;65(5):861-9. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2014-308483. Epub 2015 Feb 9. PubMed PMID: 25666192.

Cillo U, Gringeri E, Feltracco P, Bassi D, D'Amico FE, Polacco M, Boetto R. Totally Laparoscopic Microwave Ablation and Portal Vein Ligation for Staged Hepatectomy : A New Minimally Invasive Two-Stage Hepatectomy. Ann Surg Oncol. 2015 Aug;22(8):2787-8. doi: 10.1245/s10434-014-4353-7. Epub 2015 Jan 21. PubMed PMID: 25605516.

Funding ID (as Pincipal Investigator)

2016-2017 Fund DOR "Liver surgery ex-situ for unresecable tumor"

2013-2014-2015 Fund EX 60% "Liver resection after PV embolization and VLS MW ablation: pivotal study for primary and secondary liver tumors"

2014 Research Project Ateneo "Phase 2, single arm study evaluating the efficacy of multimodal liver-directed therapy, as adjuvant to chemotherapy, in the treatment of upper gastrointestinal and pancreatic adenocarcinoma metachronous liver metastasis in chemo-responder patients"

2013 Research grant “Rat model realization for definition of vascular flow alteration and injury after liver resection"

2012 Fund EX 60%"Identification of tumor biomarkers for recurrent HCC after LT"

2010 Fund EX 60%"LT for HCC: evaluation of ODC as pre-operative markers of tumor aggressiveness"

2011 Fund EX 60% "LT for cholangiocarcinoma in association with radio and chemotherapy”

2009 Fund EX 60%“Porcine model of liver hemiperfusion to evaluate ischemia reperfusion injury"

2007-2009 Regional research" Proteomic and trascriptomic study in patients with liver acute failure before and after extracorporeal support, Prometheus device"

2016 Study OCS LIVER, TRANSMEDICS “Single-arm Prospective Trial to evaluate The Safety and Performance of the Portable Organ Care System (OCS) Liver for Preserving and Assessing Donor Livers for Transplantation"

2016 Study BOOST “Sorafenib as first line treatment for HCC in Child B patient: randomized phase III study”

2016 Study OPTIMA , Celsion Corporation “A Phase III, Randomized, Double Blind, Dummy-Controlled Study (Lyso-Thermosensitive Liposomal Doxorubicin- LTLD) in HCC using standardized of ThermoDox® Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) treatment time 45 minutes for solitari lesions 3 cm to 7 cm”

2015 Study ADDRESS, ASTELLAS PHARMA “A long follow-up of adult kidney and liver allograft recipient previously enrolled into a Tacrolimus (Advagraf) trail- A multicentre non-interventional Study”