Prof Umberto Vitolo received his MD degree from the medical school of the University of Turin, Italy in 1977. He trained in Haematology at the University of Pavia and in Clinical Immunology at the University of Florence. He worked as a clinical research fellow at the section of Haematology/Oncology, department of Medicine and the Cancer Research Centre, University of Chicago, USA.

Prof Vitolo worked as a staff member of the section of Haematology, Department of Oncology of San Giovanni Battista Hospital in Turin from 1981 to 2006. From 2006 to 2007, he was the director of the chemo-immunotherapy lymphoma section and from 2008 till now he has been the Director of Haematology 2 section, Department of Oncology and Haematology, “Città della Salute e della Scienza” University-Hospital in Turin, Italy. As the director of the whole section of Haematology, he has been leading both the leukaemia and the lymphoma clinical activities. He also continues to lead the clinical research programme for malignant lymphomas in the Department of Oncology.

Prof Vitolo has been professor at the post-graduate school of Haematology, University of Turin since 2001.

Prof Vitolo’s research interests include haematological malignancies, chemotherapy and biological therapies; he has a special interest in the biology and treatment of malignant lymphoma and he is actively involved in clinical research in malignant lymphoma.

He is a member of the Italian Society of Haematology (where he is also member of the educational committee), the Italian Society of Experimental Haematology and the American Society of Haematology. He is an elected member of the Academy of Medicine of Torino.

He is a member of the expert panel for the nodal and extranodal lymphomas guide lines for both the Italian Society of Haematology and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). From 2007 to 2010 he was the chairman of the Italian Lymphoma Intergroup, from 2010 to October 2011 he was the President of the Italian Lymphoma Foundation and is currently the past-president of the foundation. Prof Vitolo is currently leading several cooperative multicentre trials in follicular and diffuse large cell lymphoma.

He has authored or co-authored many papers and abstracts in peer-reviewed journals and he is a reviewer of several scientific journals such as Haematologica, official publication of the Italian Society of Haematology, the Italian society of Experimental Haematology and European Society of Haematology, Annals of Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Blood and others.