Royal Society Surgery meeting

Professor Albert Cilia-Vincenti, Deputy Dean and Pathology Department Head at Malta's Medical School, was recently invited to attend Richard Rainsbury's inauguration as 2005 President of the Surgical Section of the Royal Society of Medicine in London.

Richard Rainsbury gave a speech detailing how, having been the first person in the UK to be specifically appointed a breast surgeon, proceeded to develop the speciality of oncoplastic breast surgery in Britain. In the process, he learned how to combine the skills of a routine breast surgeon with those of a plastic surgeon.

He also became Director of Studies at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and was now training oncoplastic breast surgeons for better cosmetic results following surgical treatment of breast cancer patients in Britain. At the end of his presentation, he announced that the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Surgical Section of the RSM will be held in Malta in mid-May.

Professor Cilia-Vincenti had been on the Winchester Breast Cancer Interdisciplinary Management Team with Richard Rainsbury for several years, and one of their combined research publications, attempting to use pathology to decide which breast cancer patients could possibly safely avoid radiotherapy, was a forerunner of similar studies around the world.

At the inaugural dinner that followed, Professor and Mrs Cilia-Vincenti were seated at Mr and Mrs Rainsbury's top table, along with Mr Jean-Claude Gazet, Mr Rainsbury's surgical training mentor at the Royal Marsden and St George's Hospitals, and Donald McNeil, the Winchester and Salisbury plastic surgeon who generously taught Richard Rainsbury the basics of plastic surgery for application to breast reconstruction.

Mr Rainsbury, who has become one of Britain's foremost breast reconstruction surgeons, has already some professional connection with Malta. A few years ago Mr Charles Swain, of St Luke's Hospital's Breast Clinic, invited Mr Rainsbury to perform a breast reconstruction operation in Malta for teaching purposes. Furthermore, Mr Gordon Caruana-Dingli, a St Luke's Breast Clinic surgeon, has been invited by Mr Rainsbury to visit Winchester for further training in breast reconstruction surgery.

Mr Rainsbury is organising the Malta RSM meeting jointly with Professor Godfrey LaFerla, Dean and Head of the Department of Surgery, and with the Malta Association of Surgeons. Maltese invited speakers at the socio-scientific functions of this RSM meeting include Professor Guido de Marco, Professor Peter Serracino-Inglott, Professor Roger Ellul-Micallef and Mr Adrian Bianchi from Manchester.