Professor of Medical Oncology, Università di Napoli Federico II.

Research interests
• Study co-ordinator of controlled clinical trials on adjuvant therapy of :
Breast cancer
Efficacy evaluation of tamoxifen.
Efficacy evaluation of anthracyclines: the five-year results have been published; two studies (MAM1 and MAM2 studies; 1515 patients enrolled) are ongoing.
Efficacy evaluation of taxanes: the TAXIT-216 trial is ongoing (950 patients enrolled).
Colo-rectal cancer
Evaluation of folinic acid and levamisole: the
study COL-1 is closed (1355 patients enrolled).
Ovarian cancer
Efficacy evaluation of sequential topotecan in patients responding to carboplatin + paclitaxel (the study is ongoing; 192 patients have been randomized).
• Treatment of metastatic breast cancer.
• Prognostic and predictive role of estrogen and progesterone receptor, prolactin receptor and c-erbB2 in breast cancer.
• Prognostic role of amenorrhea, morphologic parameters and biological parameters.
• Treatment of lung cancer.

Selected publications
Tortora G, Caputo R, Damiano V, Caputo R, Troiani T, Veneziani BM, De Placido S, Bianco AR, Zangemeister Wittke U, Ciardiello F. Combined targeted inhibition of Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, EGFR and Protein Kinase A Type I causes potent antitumor, apoptotic and antiangiogenic activity. Clin Cancer Res 2003;9:866-871.

Tortora G, Caputo R, Damiano V, Melisi D, Bianco R, Fontanini G, Veneziani BM, De Placido S, Bianco AR, Ciardiello F. Combination of a selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor ZD1839 (‘Iressa’) and protein kinase A antisense causes cooperative antitumor and antiangiogenic effect. Clin Cancer Res 2003;9:1566-72.

De Placido S, De Laurentiis M, Carlomagno C, Gallo C, Perrone F, Pepe S, Ruggiero A, Marinelli A, Pagliarulo C, Panico L, Pettinato, Petrella G, Bianco AR. 20 year results of the Naples GUN randomized trial: predictive factors of adjuvant Tamoxifen efficacy in early breast cancer. Clin Cancer Res 2003;9:1039-46.

Ciardiello F, Bianco R, Caputo R, Caputo R, Damiano V, Troiani T, Melisi D, De Vita F, De Placido S, Bianco AR, Tortora G. Antitumor activity of ZD6474, a VEGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in human cancer cells with acquired resistance to anti-EGFR therapy. Clin Cancer Res 2004;10:784-93.

De Placido S, Scambia G, Di Vagno G, Taglieri E, Vernaglia A, Biamonte R, Marinaccio M, Cartenì G, Manzione L, Febbraio A, De Matteis A, Gasparini G, Valerio MR, Danese S, Perrone F, Lauria R, De Laurentiis M, Greggi S, Gallo C, Pignata S. Topotecan compared with no therapy after response to surgery and carboplatin/pclitaxel in patients with ovarian cancer (MITO-1) randomized study. J Clin Oncol 2004;22:2635-42.