Communication WG – Biographies
Nikolina Dodlek, Croatia, (Co-Chair)
Nikolina has been an MSN cancer nurse since 2010, working as a lead nurse and shift manager of the sub-department for oncology and radiotherapy in University Hospital Center Osijek, in the Inpatient Unit with adult patients undergoing chemo, immuno and radiation therapy, as well as acute oncology and end of life care. Since 2015, she has also been working also at the J.J.Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia, as a teaching assistant and mentoring nursing students on cathedra for nursing and palliative care. During this period, she attained her bachelor degree in nursing and, in 2017, her Master’s diploma in nursing science. Nikolina is a Secretary, Co-founder and Executive Board Member of Croatian Oncology Nursing Society. She is also an EONS (from October 2019) and ESMO member. During 2020, in collaboration with and the support of the National Society, she established a Young Cancer Nurses (YCN) Network in Croatia, and started education for young cancer nurses, admitted and approved by the Croatian Nursing Council. In December 2020, she was elected as EONS YCN Co-Chair. In May 2021, she was elected as an EONS Board Member (Young Cancer Nurse), and also represents EONS in ECO on Quality of Cancer Care. She is passionate about oncology nursing, evidence-based clinical practice, student mentoring, nursing and patient education and research, alongside direct patient care.
Carlos Fernandes Cargaleiro, UK
Carlos Fernandes Cargaleiro graduated as a nurse in 1993. Carlos has an MSc in Medical-Surgical Nursing, a postgraduate specialisation in Medical-Surgical Nursing and a postgraduate qualification in Intensive Care Nursing. He has been working in the UK since 2011. For six years, he worked in an oncologic-only critical care unit in a dedicated cancer centre in London, where he was one of the staff team leaders. Since 2017, Carlos has been working as a Nurse Practitioner, working as a member of the extended surgical team for low gastrointestinal surgery in a London university hospital, seeing patients in the ward and providing a clinical plan for treatment. Carlos also participates in the 2WW list telephone assessment clinic, when on a weekly basis he assesses patients referred by local general practices and he recommends further investigations to exclude bowel cancer. Carlos attended the ESO-EONS Masterclass in Oncology Nursing in 2014.
Remziye Semerci, Turkey
Remziye is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatric Nursing at Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey. She is interested in childhood cancer and symptom management. Her research and teaching focus on management of chemotherapy-induced symptoms and reducing these symptoms with non-pharmacological methods. She is a member of the Turkey Oncology Nursing Society; additionally, she also has a role in some commissions; Pediatric Oncology Group (group secretary) and Research Group (group secretary). She is a Turkish representative of the Young Cancer Nurses Network and a member of the SIOP Nursing Working Group.
Ezgi Bilmic, Turkey
Ezgi has been working as an oncology nurse at a state hospital in Turkey since 2020. She is also a research assistant in a project regarding breast cancer at Koç University. She completed her master’s degree in internal medicine nursing there in 2022. Her master’s dissertation was on “The effectiveness of an online pain management education on the patients related barriers to cancer pain management”. She was awarded the EONS Early Career Development Grant in 2021 with her thesis project. And she received the Academic Excellence Award in Recognition of Outstanding Academic Achievements from Koç University. Rightnow, she is doing PhD education in internal medicine nursing at İstanbul University. She has participated as a management committee member in international congresses in İstanbul. She has received the certificate of oncology nursing from the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Health. She completed the masterclass in oncology from the ESO (The European School of Oncology). She also attended the research proposal workshop at the University of Barcelona. She is a member of the Turkish Oncology Nurses Society and the International Society of Nurses in Genetics. Her research focus area is cancer pain.
Gabriela Mavrodin, Romania
Gabriela graduated as a nurse in 1984 and she studied at the University of Nursing in 2011. She has a postgraduate specialisation in Paediatric Nursing (1992) and Paediatric Oncology Nursing in (2016). She has been working in the Maria Sklodowska Curie Paediatric Emergency Hospital Bucharest for 39 years. As a paediatric nurse she has worked primarily in a neonatology unit and respiratory unit for 27 years. She has currently been working as chief nurse in a paediatric oncology unit in the same hospital for 12 years. Gabriela is an individual member of EONS since 2016. She attended the 10th ESO-EONS Masterclass in Oncology Nursing in 2017 in Germany, the ESO-EONS Masterclass in Oncology Nursing in 2018 in Hungary and the ESO-EONS Clinical Fellowship for Cancer Nurses, in Milan, Italy, in 2019. She believes that improving cancer nurse education improves cancer care.
Gianluca Conte, Italy
Gianluca graduated as a nurse in 1996. He worked as a registered oncology nurse since 1997 in inpatient and outpatient units. In 2006, he held a master’s degree in oncology and palliative nursing care, and he started working as a research nurse. For 5 years he took care of lung cancer patients enrolled in clinical trials. Then he moved to the palliative care area and focused his PhD program on improving quality of life of patients with palliative care needs. In 2014, he started his academic career at the University of Genoa (Italy) and ever since, in addition to all his teaching commitments he has conducted many research studies in the field of healthcare quality and safety, and palliative and cancer nursing care with a history of over 90 publications in peer reviewed journals. In 2017, he was granted with the Fulbright Research Scholarship from the U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission and moved to Philadelphia where he worked with Professor Linda Aiken and her staff at the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR) at the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. At the moment, Gianluca is Assistant Professor at the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Genoa and Senior Fellow at the CHOPR University of Pennsylvania (USA).
Selma Islamčević, Croatia
- 2016 – current: pediatric oncology nurse at the Department of pediatric hematology and oncology at University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Croatia
- 2020 to 2024 – YCN national representative of Croatia
- 2024 – external associate in teaching at the graduate study of nursing in the field of nursing in the protection of health at work and occupational diseases at the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb.
Lace Matarlo Sölvebrand, Sweden
I work as a clinical nurse specialist for Breast Endocrine Tumors and Sarcomas in Karolinska University hospital clinical ward, Sweden. I have worked in cancer care since 2019 and have been engaged in teaching students and colleagues the basics of cancer surgical and oncological care. I am working as a Deputy University Nurse for radioactive therapy such as radioiodine and lutathera treatment. I am a clinical adjunct for Karolinska Institute for nursing students and I act as a link between the academy and the clinical field.
Stavroula Chante, UK
Stavroula is the Lead Cancer Nurse within the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust in the UK. Her role is to oversee all the cancer services within the organisation and ensure that through strong leadership the cancer care is of a high standard, equitable and consistent for all patients. She also works as a Senior Lecturer and Module Leader within Oxford Brookes University in the UK, providing teaching to postgraduate nursing students, on the topics of oncology, haematology, chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant.
Maria Lapuente
Maria is working as a Lead Oncology Research Nurse at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, UK. She has more than 12 years of experience in oncology of which over 7 years within cancer research. She has specialised in immunotherapy, Anti-Drug Conjugated (ADCs) therapies and novel treatments; particularly in phase I and II combination trials. She leads the Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) group at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC). With a focus on promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion within clinical trials. She is part of the CRUK Senior Oncology Research Nurse team. They facilitate the delivery of high-quality clinical trials within the ECMC network and beyond.
Priya Raja, Spain
Helen Oswald is EONS Communications Officer. She is responsible for overseeing the EONS website, newsletter and social media.