Prof. Matti Aapro
Prof. Matti Aapro is member of the Board of Directors of the Cancer Center, Genolier, Switzerland and of the International Union for Cancer Control (UICC). He is President of All. Can and President of Sharing Progress in Cancer Care (SPCC), both not-for-profit associations dedicated to education and improvement of the cancer patient pathway. He is Executive Board Member of the International Society for Geriatric Oncology (SIOG), Past-President of the European Cancer Organization (ECO), member of the ECO International Committee, past-President of the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) and Scientific Advisor with the European School of Oncology (ESO). He is member of the Board of the French-speaking Society for Supportive Care (AFSOS) and Advisor to the Japanese Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (JASCC). He served on the Boards of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO). He has authored over 300 papers and received several prizes and honors. His main areas of interest are breast cancer, supportive care and geriatric oncology.
Prof. Carlos Barrios
Prof. Barrios was born in Uruguay and graduated at PUCRS, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil in 1979. He is Adjunct Assistant Professor of the William Harrington Latin American Program of the University of Miami School of Medicine. He is Director and Principal Investigator of the Oncology Research Center at Hospital São Lucas, PUCRS since 1996, where he has participated in over 250 clinical research trials over the last few years. He is Director of Clinical Research and Oncologist of the Oncological Group in Porto Alegre. Currently is also member and serves in the Executive Board of the Breast International Group (BIG).
He has a strong interest in the development of international research collaboration and implementation of cooperative research infrastructures in Latin America. As such, he is cofounder and current President of LACOG (Grupo Latino Americano de Investigación Clínica en Oncologia – Latin American Clinical Oncology Research Group) that congregates more than 200 investigators, more than 70 institutions in 16 different countries in Latin America.
Prof. Yazid Balkacemi
Prof. Belkacemi is currently Chairman of Department of Radiation Oncology, Head of the Henri Mondor Breast Unit, University Hospital Henri Mondor, Creteil, France and Professor in Radiation Oncology, University of Paris XII.
He gained his medical degree in 1988 and in 1989 he did a Residency in Radiation Oncology at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France. He did a Master in Pharmaco-Oncology in 1991 and in 1992 he specialised in Radiation Oncology followed by a Master in Radiology from 1993-1994 at the Universities of Paris V, XI, XII and the Institut National des Sciences et Techniques Nucleaires and a PhD as Physical Doctor in 2000 at the University of Paris XI.
Between 1990 and 2002 Prof Belkacémi worked as Radiation Oncologist at the Department of Radiation Oncology, Tenon Hospital, Paris and from 2002 to 2007 at the Department of Radiation Oncology, Anti-cancer center, Oscar Lambret, in Northern France as referent in Breast Cancer. In 2007 he also completed a Master in Medical Management at ESCP-EAP, Paris.
In 2005 he was appointed Associate Professor at the University of Lille II and in 2008 Professor in Radiation Oncology at Creteil Medical School, University of Paris XII.
He is Head of Department of Radiation Oncology and Chairman of the Henri Mondor Breast Unit at the Henri Mondor University Hospital, Creteil since since 2011. At the University of Paris East Creteil Pr Belkacemi is nominated as President of the International committee since 2018.
Prof Belkacemi is a Member of the ESMO Faculty Group of Principles of Clinical Trials and Systemic Therapy. Furthermore, Prof Belkacémi is founding Member of the Association of Radiotherapy and Oncology of the Mediterranean Area (AROME), he was President of AROME from 2006 to 2011 and currently he is Honorary President and Executive Board member, (AROME). He is Member of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO), Member of the French Society of Radiation Oncology and Member of the French Society of Breast disease, Member of the Radiation Therapy and Breast Groups of the EORTC and Member of the Rare Cancer Network (secretary). At ASTRO, Pr Belkacemi was nominated as associated editor in the Red Journal during five years.
Prof. Stephen Chia
Prof. Stephen Chia, MD, FRCP (Canada), He is a Full Professor in the Division of Medical Oncology, Head of the Division of Medical Oncology, UBC and a staff medical oncologist with the BC Cancer, Vancouver Cancer Centre. He has a full-time clinical practice focusing on breast cancer and in new profug development. He is the Chair of the BC Cancer Breast Tumor Group and Head of the Department of Clinical Research. He is also the Co-Chair of the Breast Disease Site for Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) and a member of the NCI Breast Steering Committee.
Prof. Chia is recognized both nationally and internationally for his research work on breast cancer. His focus is on clinical trials and translational research. He has published over 185 peer-reviewed papers.
Prof. Christopher Comstock
Prof. Christopher Comstock is a Professor of Clinical Radiology in the Department of Radiology at Weil Cornell Medical Center in New York city. Following medical school at Tulane and a radiology residency at Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans, he completed a fellowship in Breast Imaging at the University of Chicago in 1995. Prof Comstock then worked at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University Hospital’s Lynn Sage Breast Center. From 2003 to 2009, Prof Comstock was the Director of Breast Imaging at the University of California at San Diego and completed a 2-year ACRIN fellowship in clinical trials in medical imaging in 2006. From 2009 to 2024, he was an Attending radiologist in the breast imaging section at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Department of Radiology in New York. In 2014 Prof Comstock was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Radiology. His past professional service includes Chair of the ACR Breast Ultrasound Accreditation program, Chair of the RSNA Breast Refresher Course program, Chair of the ACR Breast Commission on Breast Imaging BI-RADS Lexicon Subcommittee on MRI Lexicon, and Breast Committee Imaging Co-Chair of the ECOG-ACRIN NCI co-operative group. He was recently appointed Chair of the ACR Commissoin on Research. His prior research studies include serving as the Co-PI of the Alliance A011104/ACRIN 6694 study, Effect of Preoperative Breast MRI on Surgical Outcomes, and study chair of the ECOG-ACRIN (EA1141), Comparison of Abbreviated Breast MRI and Digital Breast Tomosynthesis. His current studies include serving as study chair of CMIST (Contrast Enhanced Mammography Imaging Screening Trial), a multicenter trial comparing DBT and contrast enhanced mammography and co-PI of the planned University of California at Davis/ACR study, Supplemental Yield and Performance of Smart Abbreviated Breast MRI.
Prof. Mahmoud El-Tamer
Prof. Mahmoud is trained as a breast surgeon with 25 years of experience caring for patients with breast cancer and works collaboratively with other breast cancer specialists on Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s multidisciplinary breast cancer disease management team.
Prof. El-Tamer received his MD from the American University of Beirut in 1981. He completed his residency at the American University of Beirut Medical Center in 1985, followed by four years of surgical oncology and reconstructive surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. After his training, Prof. El-Tamer became interested in joining these two disciplines to provide improved care to breast cancer patients and has developed a special expertise in this growing field of oncoplastic surgery.
Prof. El-Tamer’s research interests have covered different aspects of breast cancer and quality of care in surgery. He has been the principal or co-principal investigator on research grants from the Avon Breast Cancer Foundation, the United States Veterans’ Administration, and the American College of Surgeons. His current research interests are focused on tumor micro-environment post mastectomy radiation in 1–3 positive nodes and breast conservation. Prof. El-Tamer has published “Principals & Techniques in Oncoplastic Breast Cancer Surgery”, a textbook to help other surgeons enhance cosmetic results while performing surgery to treat breast cancer. He is currently collaborating with international Oncoplastic surgeons to publish a second edition. Prof. El-Tamer holds the patent to a new agent for sentinel node detection.
Prof. Nagi El Saghir
Prof. Nagi is Head of the Division of Hematology Oncology and Breast Center of Excellence at NK Basile Cancer Institute at American University of Beirut (AUB). He graduated from Brussels, trained in New York, and is Board Certified. He practiced in New York, Riyadh and Michigan before joining AUB_Lebanon in 1993. He is Founding President of the Lebanese Society of Medical Oncology (LSMO), Lebanese Breast Cancer Foundation, Best of ASCO Lebanon, Beirut Breast Cancer Conference (BBCC), Custodian of Breast Cancer Needy Patients Fund and Huda Onsi Breast Cancer Fund at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC).
He is member of ASCO Clinical Practice Guidelines Advisory Group 2024, Panelist & Co-author of ESO/ESMO Advanced Breast Cancer (ABC) International Consensus Guidelines 2011-2023, and Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI) Guidelines for Low- Middle- Income Countries. Past-Chair of ASCO International Affairs Committee 2014 and ASCO Clinical Practice Guidelines-Resource Stratified Guidelines. Member ESMO Scientific Committee 2018, Committees at Ministry of Health, WHO, UICC, ASCO, ESMO, ESO, Arab Medical Association Against Cancer AMAAC Founding Executive Board, ESO, ABC Global Alliance, Core Faculty ESMO and ESO.
Prof. Michael Gnant
Prof. Michael Gnant is Full Professor at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, where he also serves as President of the Austrian Breast & Colorectal Cancer Study Group. He is co-chairing the St Gallen International Consensus Panel for Early Breast Cancer in Vienna. Prof Gnant graduated in medicine and subsequently specialized in surgery and surgical oncology. He also worked as a Visiting Scientist at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA. Prof Gnant’s research interests include breast cancer, immunotherapy, bone-targeted treatment, tumor dormancy/quiescence, CDK4/6 inhibition, SERDs, and he has been the Principal Investigator of many clinical trials. The author of more than 560 original peer-reviewed papers (IF: 4,800; h-index 90), Prof Gnant has presented over 1,000 lectures at international meetings. He is the recipient of multiple awards, e.g. the Claudia von Schilling Prize, the Umberto Veronesi Lecture Award, and a Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He holds an honorary MD degree of Sichuan University and an Honorary Professorship of Tianjin University. One of the most highly cited scientists worldwide, Prof Gnant is a member of ASCO, AACR, ACS, BIG, ESSO, EUSOMA. Prof Gnant is also Editor-in-Chief of BREAST CARE, and editorial board member and reviewer for many top-tier peer-reviewed journals including The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Annals of Oncology.
Prof. Valentina Guarneri
Valentina Guarneri, MD, PhD, is Full Professor of Oncology at the University of Padova, and Director of the Oncology 2 Division at the Istituto Oncologico Veneto. She is Director of the Specialty programme in Medical Oncology, chair of the multidisciplinary Breast Unit, Director of the Master Degree programme in Clinical Research in Oncology.
She completed her fellowship in Oncology in 2003, and she obtained her PhD Degree in Clinical and Experimental Oncology in 2007. In 2005, she completed a research experience at the Department of Breast Medical Oncology, UT. MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, where she also was Visiting Assistant Professor in 2009.
In 2005, she has been appointed Assistant Professor of Oncology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, where she also chaired the Breast Unit from 2011 to 2013. She moved to University of Padova in2013, where she has been appointed the position of Associate Professor of Oncology. From 2015 to 2018, she was member of the Research Committee of the Italian Ministry of Health.
She was a long-standing member of the ESMO Fellowship and Award Committe, Oncology Pro Working Group and ESMO Young Oncologists Committee (YOC). She is also a founder member of the Women for Oncology Italy initiative (a national spin-off of the ESMO initiative). She is in the editorial review board of several international journals, including The Lancet Oncology, Annals of Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, The Oncologist and Clinical Breast Cancer.
Her research interest is mainly focused on clinical and translational research for breast cancer patients. She published more than 270 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
She has presented more than 400 lectures at national and international conferences.
Prof. Terry Mamounas
Terry Mamounas is Medical Director of the Breast Program and Research Activities at AdventHealth Cancer Institute, Professor of Surgery at University of Central Florida and Clinical Professor of Clinical Sciences, Florida State University College of Medicine. He is Chair of the NRG Oncology Breast Committee and past Chair of the NSABP Breast Committee.
He received his medical degree from the University in Athens in Greece, and a Master of Public Health (Epidemiology) from the University of Pittsburgh. Following his general surgery residency, he completed an oncology research fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh and a surgical oncology fellowship at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York.
He has authored or co-authored over 450 abstracts, manuscripts, and book chapters, and he has given numerous presentations on breast cancer at various regional, national, and international symposia. His clinical research has focused on the surgical and adjuvant treatment of early-stage breast cancer.
Prof. Meena Moran
Prof. Moran is a director of the Yale Medicine Breast Radiotherapy Program and professor of Therapeutic Radiology at Yale University School of Medicine, Meena Moran, MD, is committed to not only helping her own patients but all breast cancer patients. “My passion lies with providing patients with individualized care, along with improving the standard of care in the field of breast cancer management.
An internationally known expert, she is frequently invited to lectures worldwide, educating physicians about state-of-the-art breast cancer treatment. In addition, she has served on numerous panels to develop guidelines and standards for breast health care. She is a panel member for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and a founding board member of the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers. She has published numerous book chapters and journal articles pertaining to her research on radiation techniques, predictors of relapse, and ethnic variations in breast cancer.
Prof. Joana Ribeiro
Prof. Joana Ribeiro is a Portuguese oncologist who joined the Medical Oncology Department/Breast team of the Gustave Roussy Institute in September 2021. She obtained her medical degree from the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Clássica de Lisboa in 2004 and began her internship in Medical Oncology in 2006 at the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte, becoming a specialist in Medical Oncology in 2011. In the same year, she completed a fellowship at the Breast Unit of the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy.
In 2012, she joined the Breast Unit at the Champalimaud Clinical Centre, where she worked until 2021. Since the early stages of her career, Dr. Ribeiro has focused a significant portion of her activity on translational research in breast cancer, with a particular interest in genomics, tumor evolution, and Immuno-Oncology. In 2019, she completed the Global Clinical Scholars Research Training Program at Harvard University.
Since November 2021, she has been leading the preoperative/neoadjuvant translational trials platform at the Gustave Roussy Institute, primarily in the field of Immuno-Oncology, and is responsible for the participation of the Breast Unit in molecular tumor boards. Dr. Ribeiro actively collaborates with the ZITVOGEL Lab and is currently pursuing her PhD in the area of the microbiome in breast cancer.
She serves as the Principal Investigator of the OPT-PEMBRO trial and is a member of the CS3 UNICANCER Breast Cancer Group (Scientific Board). Additionally, she is involved as a co-investigator in several industry-sponsored clinical trials as well as in academic studies. Dr. Ribeiro was a board member of the Portuguese Oncology Society from 2018 to 2022 and is an active member of ASPIC, EACR, ESMO, and ASCO.
Prof. Hope Rugo
Prof. Hope Rugo is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, where she directs Breast Cancer and Clinical Trial Education. Her research interests include novel therapies for advanced breast cancer, immune modulation to restore chemotherapy sensitivity, evaluation of circulating cells as novel markers of response and resistance to therapy, neoadjuvant therapy, and supportive care.
Prof. Rugo is a member of the ALLIANCE Breast Core Committee and the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium, is the UCSF representative to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines Committee and serves on several committees for the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She has published many peer-reviewed papers and has given presentations on a variety of breast cancer and supportive care-related topics.
Prof. Alphonse Taghian
Prof Alphonse Taghian is the CC Wang Endowment Chair Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Breast Radiation Oncology service and Director of the Lymphedema Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He earned his Medical Degree from Alexanprofia University in Egypt. He completed his residency in Radiation Oncology in France, after which he pursued his PhD in Radiobiology at the Gustave Roussy Institute and Paris University. Prof Taghian was appointed as staff in the Department of Radiation
Oncology at MGH.
An internationally recognized leader in breast radiation oncology, in the field of Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation and Lymphedema Research. Prof Taghian has published more than 275 peer reviewed articles, general reviews, letters to editor, commentaries, and chapters. He has edited 2 books. He was awarded several NIH grants totaling around $2.7 Million for research in breast cancer related lymphedema. His main interests include screening and early intervention for lymphedema, methods to minimize cardiac exposure to radiation, accelerated partial breast irradiation, Protons radiation in breast cancer and complications on breast reconstruction.
Prof. Giuseppe Viale
Professor Viale, graduated from the University of Milan in 1976. He became a specialist in pathology in 1979, and full professor of Pathology at the University of Milan School of Medicine in 1994. He is the Chairman of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan since 1994. A member from 1987, he was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath) in 1997.
He is the chairman of the Central Pathology Office of the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG) and of the Pathology Board of the Michelangelo Foundation, and lead pathologist of the Breast International Group (BIG). Professor Viale is the head of the central reference laboratory for several International randomized clinical trials of targeted therapies and immunotherapies for patients with early and advanced breast cancer.
Professor Viale has devoted most of his research activity in the last decades to breast cancer, and he has contributed to international efforts towards harmonization of the biological characterization of breast cancer as an active member of:
the ASCO-CAP committee for ER and PGR testing guidelines, the ASCO-CAP committee for HER2 testing guidelines, the International Ki67 in Breast Cancer Working Group, the International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group on Breast Cancer, the BIG-NABCG working groups for the characterization of residual disease after neo-adjuvant chemotherapy, the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group Steering Committee.
He is also a founding member of the International Sentinel Node Society.