Cancer World Magazine
  • About the Journal
    • Editorial Team
    • Leadership and Management
    • Journal staff
    • Events
    • Magazine
    • Archive
    • Contacts
  • Articles
    • Policy
    • Practice Points
    • Delivery of Care
    • Biology basic
    • Medicine
    • Featured
  • Contents
    • News
    • Editorials
    • Interviews to the Expert
    • In the Hot Seat
    • Profiles
    • Obituaries
    • Voices
    • Partnership
    • Supported contents
  • Media Corner
    • Journalist Cancer Guide
    • Cancer Journalism Award
    • Cancer Journalist Grant
NEWSLETTER  |  PRINT VERSION
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Cancer World Magazine
Cancer World Magazine
  • About the Journal
    • Editorial Team
    • Leadership and Management
    • Journal staff
    • Events
    • Magazine
    • Archive
    • Contacts
  • Articles
    • Policy
    • Practice Points
    • Delivery of Care
    • Biology basic
    • Medicine
    • Featured
  • Contents
    • News
    • Editorials
    • Interviews to the Expert
    • In the Hot Seat
    • Profiles
    • Obituaries
    • Voices
    • Partnership
    • Supported contents
  • Media Corner
    • Journalist Cancer Guide
    • Cancer Journalism Award
    • Cancer Journalist Grant
Cancer World Magazine > Obituaries > In memoriam: Alfredo Die Goyanes, oncology surgeon
  • Obituaries

In memoriam: Alfredo Die Goyanes, oncology surgeon

  • 9 November 2020
  • Augusto García Villanueva
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0
0
0

It is not possible!

Alfredo has passed away, he has not been able to overcome the attack of the damn virus that devastates lives and feelings.

I try to control my memories, my friendship with him and the enormous gratitude for everything he did and I will try to reflect the example of his life and the extraordinary contribution he made to Surgery and Oncology in our country.

Alfredo was born in Madrid in 1931 into a family dedicated to medicine, which was to mark the course of his professional life.

He was the grandson of Dr. José Goyanes Capdevilla, extraordinary surgeon and humanist, founder of the National Cancer Institute and the Spanish League against Cancer. He was the son of Dr. José Die y Mas, who guided him and his first steps in surgery, instilling in him the basic principles of being a doctor.

In 1964 he obtained a Fullbright Scholarship and he moved with his family to the United States. He initially developed his activity at Prince George Hospital in Washington D.C. during six months, and later at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he remained until 1969.

This stage was decisive in his personal life, and in his professional training. He had the satisfaction of having reached a goal to which he always aspired: to train in one of the best Oncology Centers of the moment.

He was trained at a time when Surgery was the most effective weapon against cancer, as there were no other weapons of equal efficacy at that time, although he was fortunate to work in a hospital with an important development of Medical Oncology . This was certainly not a reflection of what happened elsewhere at that time.

He returned to Spain and joined the National Cancer Institute of Madrid as a surgeon until 1973, when he obtained the position of Head of General and Digestive Surgery under the direction of Prof. F. de la Cruz Caro, at the then called “Hospital Universitario Primero de Octubre” of Madrid, and in 1976 he obtained the position of Service Chief in the Department of General and Digestive Surgery at University Hospital Ramón y Cajal, a position he held until his retirement in 1997.

There was a time when surgery was, almost in itself, the key to treating tumors, as no other treatment modalities of similar efficacy existed. Today the fight against cancer is based on a multidisciplinary strategy where surgery is included, a strategy which he significantly contributed to develop.

At that time, the responsibility for obtaining a good therapeutic outcome in cancer treatment depended largely on the performance of the cancer surgeon, who had to be a good doctor above all.

He had to gather extensive anatomical knowledge and safely master the surgical technique adapted to the knowledge of the time, and perform surgery only after a correct and well thought through indication. The surgeon had to be cautious but brave; have a commitment to the patient during the course of the disease and its complications; have ethical values, and not base his decisions on his presumed technical certainty.

If, in addition to all this, the oncological surgeon was capable of transmitting his knowledge with a sense of teaching, stimulating the training of his collaborators towards the knowledge of oncology, and adopting flexible positions and open-mindedness to favor the development of oncology, we will have the ideal oncological surgeon. But does somebody like this exist? We have just described Dr. Alfredo Die Goyanes.

He was founder and first President of the Spanish Society of Head and Neck Surgeons, of the Spanish Society of Surgical Oncology (SEOQ), and of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies (FESEO).

He was a humble, vital person; a friend of his friends, and an extraordinary father.

His death leaves a deep sadness among his family and friends, but his legacy remains among his innumerable disciples scattered throughout Spain, who bear the stamp of his training and his “surgical genetics”. To some extent Alfredo remains, he has not gone . Rest in peace.

About the author: Augusto García Villanueva Director of Surgery at the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital and Professor at the University of Alcalá de Henares, Madrid

Download Pdf
Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Augusto García Villanueva

Previous Article
  • News

Roundtable ‘grasps nettle’ on European cancer inequalities

  • 6 November 2020
  • Janet Fricker
View Post
Next Article
  • Articles
  • Medicine

Thank you virologists! – Nobel Prize spotlights virus-associated cancers

  • 9 November 2020
  • Adriana Albini
View Post
You May Also Like
View Post
  • Obituaries

Karen Benn: a great example of what an advocate can accomplish

  • Marc Beishon
  • 14 September 2020
View Post
  • Obituaries

Lynn Faulds Wood: consumer rights watchdog who took up the cause of cancer patients

  • Marc Beishon
  • 21 May 2020
View Post
  • Obituaries

Dino Amadori passes away at the age of 83

  • Editorial Staff
  • 3 March 2020
View Post
  • Obituaries

In memory of Aron Goldhirsch, challenging oncologist with a vision

  • Editorial Staff
  • 3 March 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

search
or search in Cancer World archive
Latest news
  • Financial burden on older adults with advanced cancer worsens quality of life
    • 15 January 2021
  • Integrated imaging opens the way for virtual biopsies
    • 15 January 2021
  • Cancer survivors at greater risk of subsequent primary cancers
    • 30 December 2020
  • Immunotherapy cardiotoxicity higher than previously estimated
    • 24 December 2020
  • NHS cancer screening blood test
    NHS England’s pilot of cancer screening blood test raises questions
    • 21 December 2020
Latest printed issue
Article
  • Berlin pilot project brings precision care to the peripheries
    • 15 January 2021
  • Highlights of 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting
    • 14 January 2021
  • Highlights of 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
    • 28 December 2020
Newsletter

Don't miss our newsletter

Would you like to receive our bimonthly e-newsletter with the latest news from Cancer World magazine?

Subscribe now
Social

Would you follow us ?

Contents
  • Interview to Christian Rolfo
    Liquid biopsy for early stage lung cancer moves closer
    • 12 January 2021
  • A 360° approach to a 360° problem: why a mission is the right approach to solving cancer
    • 2 December 2020
  • The cost of cancer in Europe
    • 16 November 2020
MENU
  • About the Journal
    • Editorial Team
    • Leadership and Management
    • Journal staff
    • Events
    • Magazine
    • Archive
    • Contacts
  • Articles
    • Policy
    • Practice Points
    • Delivery of Care
    • Biology basic
    • Medicine
    • Featured
  • Contents
    • News
    • Editorials
    • Interviews to the Expert
    • In the Hot Seat
    • Profiles
    • Obituaries
    • Voices
    • Partnership
    • Supported contents
  • Media Corner
    • Journalist Cancer Guide
    • Cancer Journalism Award
    • Cancer Journalist Grant
Cancer World Magazine
  • About the Journal
  • Articles
  • Media Corner
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
Archivio Cancerworld

Input your search keywords and press Enter.