Annals of Oncology 9: 343, 1998.
Obituary
Prof. Dr. E. van der Schueren
On 3 March 1998, Professor van der Schueren, Medical
Director of the University Hospital of Leuven and former head of the Department of Oncology, died.
Professor van der Schueren obtained his medical degree at the University of Leuven 1968, magna cum laude.
He was trained in radiotherapy in the same university. In
1971 he went to the radiobiology laboratory of Stanford
of H.S. Kaplan, where he worked on DNA repair after
radiotherapy, investigations he had already begun in
Leuven and led to his thesis in Leuven in 1974. Later
that year, he joined the department of radiotherapy at
the university of Amsterdam, then chaired by Professor
K. Breur.
In 1979 he came back to Leuven, first to chair the
department of radiotherapy and later the department of
oncology, consisting of both radiotherapy and medical
oncology, until 1997, when he became medical director
of the Leuven University Hospitals.
The influence of Professor van der Schueren in oncology in Europe can best be described by the different
subjects he has started over the years, beginning with the
foundation of the Belgian Society for Radiotherapy.
Thereafter he was one of the founding members of the
European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology. He was the first editor and founder of the 'Green
Journal', the European Journal of Radiotherapy and
Oncology. With the transition in his own department
from the chair of radiotherapy to oncology he also
applied this multidisciplinary approach in his international work, where he was one of the founding members
of the Federation of European Cancer Societies, which
he served as secretary general from 1986 until 1995. Also
in the other pan-European organisation, the EORTC he
served on many groups, starting from being president of
the Radiotherapy Group from 1979 to 1982, president
of the Protocol Review Committee from 1980 to 1981,
member of the Scientific Advisory Committee 1982-1989,
chairman of the Breast Group 1989-1991 and finally he
was President of the EORTC from 1991 to 1994.
One of the most important objectives of van der
Schueren's mission in accepting all these functions was
that if something did not function very well, through his
charisma, he made it function. He created a structure that
made it function optimally and thereafter he was happy
to be able to transfer the then functioning machine to
Prof. Dr. Emmanuel
van der Schueren
someone else, thus allowing him to start a new mission.
His great intelligence and his physical power was not
always well understood by the people who did not know
him very well; he sometimes sounded a little bit ironic,
even sarcastic, but it was a mask to hide his involvement in the things he wanted to be done. If you handed
him an article he often used Kaplan's phrase by just
asking: 'give me the message in one sentence', and if you
could he would read it, and if you could not you rewrote
the article, or did not submit it at all.
Next to his very intense working attitude he also
enjoyed life by his eagerness to travel, and his love for
good music and fine wines. He was a advisor for many
and a deeply caring friend for a privileged few. He will
be deeply missed, not only by all the organisations that
he served, his university hospital and department, but
especially by his wife Marie-Anne and his three children;
his family for whom he cared most as he showed in his
last months.
D. K. Hossfeld
President ESMO
Hamburg, Germany
A. T. van Oosterom
Head Department of Oncology
Leuven, Belgium