Raffaella Casolino, MD, Ph.D, is a medical oncologist and researcher who combines clinical practice with translational science and health policy to improve lives of people with cancer in equitable manner and impact on global cancer control. She is currently Technical Officer at the WHO headquarter in Geneva, as part of the Cancer Control team, and honorary clinical senior lecturer at the School of Cancer Science of University of Glasgow. 

Dr. Casolino graduated from medical school at the University of Bologna (Italy) in 2010 and qualified as medical oncologist at the University of Verona (Italy) in 2016. During her residency, she has primarily focused on clinical and translational research in pancreatic cancer in the context of the Pancreas Institute of Verona. After completing her residency, she worked for two years at the Scientific Research Hospital (IRCCS) Sacro Cuore Don Calabria (Italy) and given her strong interest in research, in 2018 she started a Ph.D program in cancer science in partnership between the University of Verona and the University of Glasgow.

In 2020 she joined the Glasgow Precision Oncology Laboratory under the mentorship of Prof. Andrew Biankin where, in addition to her main research project focused on the investigation of novel biomarkers for cancer risk and treatment by using ‘omics’ technologies and large datasets, she conducted several initiatives on health policy and patient education. She is member of the clinical-metadata working group of the International Cancer Genome Consortium Accelerating Research in Genomic Oncology (ICGC ARGO) since 2020 and is chairing a Lancet Oncology Commission on Cancer Genomics and Precision Oncology.

Dr. Casolino joined the WHO as Technical Officer in February 2023. Here she will be working on several projects aimed to support countries in reducing the burden of cancer through better prevention and control policies.

She is  an ESMO member since 2016. She collaborates with ESMO on global public health projects that support Universal Health Coverage and better health outcomes for all and is currently the ESMO medical oncologist contributing to the WHO cancer projects that ESMO is supporting.