Javier Cortés, MD PhD
International Breast Cancer Center (IBCC), Barcelona, Spain
Universidad Europea de Madrid, Faculty of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Department of Medicine, Madrid, Spain
Medica Scentia Innovation Research (MedSIR), Barcelona, Spain & New Jersey, US
Dr. Javier Cortes received a degree in Medicine and Surgery from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 1996, specialist in Medical Oncology by the Clínica Universitaria de Navarra, and awarded the title of Doctor in Medical Oncology from the University of Navarra in 2002. From June 2003 to July 2015, he has worked in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Hospital Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona, where he has been Coordinator of the Teaching and Training Programme for Residents in Oncology. In addition he was the Head of the Breast Cancer Program from July 2006 to August 2015. From September 2015 to October 2018, he has been Head of the Breast Cancer and Gynecological tumors at Ramon y Cajal University Hospital in Madrid. Dr. Cortes was the Head of the Breast Cancer Program at IOB Institute of Oncology, Quironsalud group, in both Madrid and Barcelona, from 2011 to September 2020. He has been Senior Clinical Investigator of the Breast Cancer Research Program at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology from 2011 to February 2022.
Dr. Cortés is the Head of the International Breast Cancer Centre (IBCC) in Barcelona, founding partner of Medica Scientia innovation Research (MedSIR), a company involved in the clinical development of clinical trials.
In addition to his medical specialties, he has two master degrees in “Medical Direction and Clinical Management” by the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) and “Research methodology in Health Sciences” by the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona and a degree in “Statistics in Health Sciences” by the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona.
He has contributed to over 430 peer-reviewed publications, especially about breast tumours and new drugs and more than 800 communications at different conferences. He actively participates in the development of numerous international clinical trials, and he is an ad hoc reviewer of various oncology journals, including, New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Lancet Oncology, Annals of Oncology or Journal of Clinical Oncology, among many others.
Dr Cortés is an active member of the Spanish, European, and American Societies of Medical Oncology (SEOM, ESMO, ASCO). In addition, he is a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), of the Scientific Committee of the European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC), has been chair for breast cancer at the ESMO 2020 congress, and co-chair of the same section in the congress of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2020, as well as the immunotherapy area of the AACR 2021 congress. He is a member of the expert panel that develops the treatment guidelines for metastatic breast cancer of the European Society for Medical Oncology, member of the ABC Conference, member of the ASCO International Affairs Committee, member of the executive panel in charge of SABCS Strategic Planning, and co-organizer of the Annual Congress of Controversies in Breast Cancer (CoBrCa).
In addition, according to the American Expertscape 2023 ranking, he is considered the world’s leading expert on HER2+ and fourth world oncologist with the greatest expertise in breast cancer and in 2022 and 2023 was identified as Clarivate™ world’s most influential researchers.
Professor Lucia Del Mastro
Director of the Clinical Oncology unit since 2021 and Coordinator of the Breast Unit since 2017 at Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genova Italy, Lucia Del Mastro is Full Professor of Oncology and Director of the Postgraduate School of Oncology at University of Genova, Italy
A medical oncologist specializing in breast cancer, her work involves various areas of research in oncology: from translational research to clinical research. She is the principal investigator of multicenter national academic phase II and III studies in metastatic and early breast cancer patients. She is member of the Scientific Committee of GIM (Gruppo Italiano Mammella, Italy) and Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Cooperative Group (Oxford – Uk), chairperson of the steering committee of the AIOM (Associazione Italiana Oncologia Medica) recommendations for fertility preservation in cancer patients and she is a member of the steering committees of the AIOM and ESMO (European Society of Medical Oncology) guidelines for the management of early breast cancer (Ann Oncol. 2024;35:159-182).
Main results of her academic clinical research, that helped advance the scientific knowledge in oncology, include: 1. the identification of a new strategy for preserving the fertility of young breast cancer receiving chemotherapy which is internationally recognized as a procedure to be proposed to all young breast cancer patients (JAMA. 2011;306:269-76.;JAMA 2015; 314:2632-40); 2. The identification of a new more effective strategy for administering the adjuvant chemotherapy (Lancet 2015;385:1863-72; Lancet Oncol. 2022;23:1571-1582 ); 3. The identification of a new more effective strategy for administering the adjuvant endocrine therapy (Lancet Oncol. 2021;22:1458-1467).
Prof. Lucia Del Mastro is the author and co-author of more than 300 scientific publications in international journals, with an H-index (last 15 years) of 57 (excluding self citations: 55) (source: Scopus).
In 2022, Lucia Del Mastro received from the President of the Italian Republic the outstanding Guido Venosta Award for her significant contribution to clinical breast cancer research.
Dr. Rodrigo Sánchez-Bayona,MD PhD
Unidad de Cáncer de Mama y Ginecológico
Hospital 12 de Octubre
ESMO Young Oncologists Committee member
Dr. Rodrigo Sánchez-Bayona (MD, PhD) is a Medical Oncologist specializing in breast cancer, currently working in the Breast Cancer Unit at the Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre (Madrid, Spain). He has research experience as a principal investigator and sub-investigator in multiple clinical trials from Phase 1 to Phase 3. He is a postdoctoral researcher at CNIO (Spanish National Cancer Research Centre) in the Cell Division and Cancer Group. Dr Sanchez-Bayona completed the ‘Rio Hortega’ State Training Subprogram, granted by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III. He has received competitive funding as a principal investigator for other translational breast cancer research projects, including the 2022 Health Research Award granted by Fundación HNA. Dr. Sánchez-Bayona has authored or co-authored more than 50 publications in indexed journals. He holds prominent positions within national and international scientific societies, serving as Scientific Secretary of SEOM (Spanish Society of Medical Oncology) and as a member of the ESMO (European Society for Medical Oncology) Young Oncologists Committee. In 2021, he was awarded the ‘SEOM Somos Futuro’ prize by the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology for young researchers in Oncology.
Fatima Cardoso, MD, ESCO, FESMO
Director, Breast Unit, Champalimaud Clinical Center, Lisbon, Portugal
President, ABC Global Alliance
Dr Cardoso is the Director of the Breast Unit of the Champalimaud Clinical Center (CCC) in Lisbon, Portugal. She is board certified in medical oncology and internal medicine.
Dr Cardoso earned her medical degree at the University of Porto in Portugal and completed fellowships in the Translational Research Unit of the Jules Bordet Institute (IJB) in Brussels, Belgium, and the Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. She then worked for 10 years as Assistant Professor at the Medical Oncology Clinic of the IJB and served as the scientific director of the international research network TRANSBIG for 7 years (EU Framework VI). She returned to Portugal in October 2010 to create the Breast Unit of the CCC, leading it to become the 1st certified Breast Unit in Portugal.
Her research interests include biology of breast cancer, prognostic and predictive markers, and new anticancer agents, and is involved in many phase I-IV breast cancer clinical trials. Dr Cardoso is also deeply involved in the field of global cancer policy, accessibility and inequalities, and is the founder and President of the Advanced Breast Cancer (ABC) Global Alliance, as well as the founder and chair of the ABC International Consensus Guidelines Conference. She is also active in numerous professional organizations such as ESO, ESMO, ASCO, AACR, EORTC and E.C.O., where she serves on several committees; she was a member of the Board of Directors of ESMO, ECCO and EORTC.
She is editor-in-chief of The Breast Journal, associate editor of the European Journal of Cancer, and an editorial board member of several other journals.
She has received several educational and research grants from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the European Society of Medical Oncology, the European Cancer Organization, the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation, the Portuguese League Against Cancer, the Portuguese Ministry of Health, the Free University of Brussels, the "Fonds Jean-Claude Heuson", the Fondation Lambeau-Marteau, the Belgian Federation Against Cancer, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and the European Union. She was awarded the prestigious Order of Santiago da Espada for Scientific Merit, from the President of Portugal, on June 10th 2015. She has also received the Flims Alumni Club (FAC) Lifetime Achievement Award 2011; the Prix Nice - St Paul 2017, for the work developed for Advanced Breast Cancer Patients; the Reach to Recovery International Health Professional Award 2019, for exceptional contributions by a health professional in the field of breast cancer support; the ABC Award 2019, in recognition of her foresight in understanding the importance of advanced breast cancer and for launching a Global Alliance against it, the 2020 Jin Xian-zhai Special Achievement Award, for outstanding contributions to prevention and treatment of human cancer, especially breast cancer, the 2020 European Breast Cancer Science Award/Emmanuel van der Schueren Lecture, the 2021 Umberto Veronesi Memorial Award, and the 2022 ESMO Women For Oncology Award.
Dr Cardoso has authored about 350 publications and has presented her work nationally and internationally