Our speakers
Dr Aditya Bardia
Attending Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
Dr Aditya Bardia, a board-certified medical oncologist, is an Attending Physician at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston. As the Director of Precision Oncology Program at the MGH Center for Breast Cancer, Dr Bardia is interested in integrating precision diagnostics and therapeutics, including clinical application of circulating tumour cells and DNA as “liquid biopsy”, to significantly improve the outcomes of patients afflicted with breast cancer. Dr Bardia has led the clinical development of antibody drug conjugate (ADC), sacituzumab govitecan, which was recently provided accelerated approval for patients with metastatic triple negative breast cancer. Dr Bardia has received several research awards including outstanding award for research excellence at Mayo Clinic, Young Investigator Award from ASCO, and Douglas Family Foundation prize for excellence in oncology research at MGH. Dr Bardia is the editor of precision medicine clinic section of The Oncologist, co-leader of the Molecular and Precision (MAP) tumour board at MGH, and editorial board member of ASCO molecular oncology tumour board.
Dr Ethan Basch
Physician-in-Chief, North Carolina Cancer Hospital
Chief of Oncology, University North Carolina
Dr Ethan Basch is Physician-in-Chief of the North Carolina Cancer Hospital and Chief of Oncology at the University North Carolina, where he is Distinguished Professor in Medical Oncology and Professor of Health Policy & Management.
Dr Basch is involved in efforts to bring PROs into comparative effectiveness research, routine care, and quality improvement. He led a group under contract to the National Cancer Institute to create and test a system for collecting patient-reported AEs during cancer trials called the ‘PRO-CTCAE’. He is a member of the Board of Directors of ASCO, an Associate Editor at JAMA, and a prior member of the Board of Scientific Advisors for the National Cancer Institute and the Methodology Committee of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Dr Basch received his MD from Harvard Medical School, a Master’s degree in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, completed his Internal Medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and fellowships in Oncology and Health Services Research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He has published over 250 manuscripts, and is deeply committed to advancing integration of patient perspectives in oncology clinical research and care.
Dr Fatima Cardoso
Director, Breast Unit, Champalimaud Clinical Center
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 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 seven years (EU Framework VI). She returned to Portugal in 2010 to create the Breast Unit of the CCC, leading it to become the first certified breast unit in Portugal.
Dr Cardoso has been a member of several Board of Directors namely ESMO, ECCO and EORTC. Dr Cardoso founded and is founder and President of the Advanced Breast Cancer (ABC) Global Alliance and of the ABC International Consensus Guidelines Conference. She is editor-in-chief of The Breast Journal, associate editor of the European Journal of Cancer, and has authored about 300 publications. 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; and 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.
Prof Anees Chagpar
Department of Surgery, Yale School of Medicine
Anees is Professor in the Department of Surgery, Yale School of Medicine. She completed her BSc in Honors Biochemistry and MD with Honors in Research at the University of Alberta, and her general surgery residency training and MSc at the University of Saskatchewan. She went on to complete the Susan G. Komen Interdisciplinary Breast Fellowship at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, an MPH at Harvard School of Public Health, an MA in Bioethics and Medical Humanities at the University of Louisville, and an MBA for Executives with a focus on Leadership in Healthcare from Yale’s School of Management. She is a busy breast surgeon who participates in clinical trials, as well as translational and clinical research, is the Breast Surgery Section editor for UpToDate, and co-leads the Yale Global Surgery Faculty Network. She has published over 170 papers, including in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. She has given hundreds of talks and workshops all over the world, teaches a course called “An Introduction to Breast Cancer” on Coursera with over 31,000 learners worldwide, and has most recently launched “Chagpar, MD”, a YouTube channel geared towards evidence-based health and wellness.
Dr Peter Chin
Oncoplastic breast surgeon, Tauranga Hospital
Peter graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1994 and completed his surgical training in NZ before undertaking an Oncoplastic Breast Fellowship at the Edinburgh Breast Unit. He has been the lead breast surgeon at Tauranga Hospital and the Bay of Plenty Breast screening program since 2006. Peter is an executive council director of the Australasian Society for Breast Disease and is on the teaching faculty for the BreastSurgANZ Oncoplastic courses. He enjoys teaching and is an honorary clinical lecturer with the University of Auckland.
Prof Prudence Francis
Clinical Lead Breast Medical Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Prue is a medical oncologist breast cancer clinician researcher. She received her medical degree from the University of Melbourne and completed Medical Oncology training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She returned to Australia in 1994 as a Consultant Medical Oncologist at Peter MacCallum. She is a Visiting Medical Oncologist at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne.
Prue is chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Breast Cancer Trials Australia & New Zealand group (BCT-ANZ). She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG) and a member of the Breast International Group (BIG).
She is a member of the St. Gallen International Expert Consensus Panel on the Primary Therapy of Early Breast Cancer, and the Advanced Breast Cancer (ABC) International Consensus Panel. She is a member of the Steering Committee for the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) based in Oxford.
Prue is an international study chair for the SOFT trial, and chairs the Steering Committee for the TEXT and SOFT trials that have changed management of premenopausal hormone receptor positive early breast cancer.
She was awarded the Medical Oncology Group of Australia (MOGA) Cancer Achievement Award in 2015. She was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS) in 2019.
Prof Sherene Loi
Head of Translational Breast Cancer Genomics and Therapeutics laboratory, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Professor Sherene Loi is a medical oncologist specialising in breast cancer treatment, and also works as a clinician scientist with expertise in genomics, immunology and drug development. After completing medical oncology specialist clinical training in 2003, Sherene undertook a PhD and postdoctoral studies at the Institut Jules Bordet in Brussels, Belgium. In 2013, she returned to head the newly created Translational Breast Cancer Genomics and Therapeutics laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, as well as Consultant Medical Oncologist in the Breast Service and head of the Breast Cancer Clinical Trials Unit.
Sherene is recognised internationally as a leading clinician scientist whose work has led to new insights into the immunology field in breast cancer. She leads a number of international breast cancer clinical trials in immunotherapy. To date, she has published over 220 peer-reviewed research articles with a lifetime H index of 74. Sherene is a Board Director as well as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Australia New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group (BCT Australia/NZ), which is the largest breast cancer clinical trials cooperative group in Australia. She Co-Chairs the Scientific Executive Committee and the Translational Working Group of the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG) based in Switzerland. Sherene is the current holder of the Inaugural National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) of Australia Endowed Chair and a research fellow of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), New York. She is also on the Scientific Committee for Breast Cancer for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
Dr Victoria Mango
Associate Attending Radiologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Victoria Mango, MD, FSBI is an Associate Attending Radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she serves as the Co-Director of Breast Imaging Education and Training, Director of Radiology at the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Head of Breast Imaging Clinical Research. She focuses on international radiology outreach through the MSK Global Cancer Disparity Program and as co-chair of the Society of Breast Imaging’s International Education Outreach Committee. She is also Director of the RAD-AID Kenya program with RAD-AID International, a non-profit organization that seeks to bring radiology services to underserved areas of the world.
Prof Philip Poortmans
Radiation oncologist, Iridium Kankernetwerk
Marie Curie Professor, Paris Science & Lettres University
Institut Curie Medical advisor for Sordina IORT Technologies
Professor Philip Poortmans began working as a radiation oncologist in Tilburg in 1991, where he stayed for 23 years. From 2014-2017, Philip was head of the radiation oncology department of the Radboud university medical centre in The Netherlands, and head of the radiation oncology department of Institut Curie, Paris - St. Cloud - Orsay, France from 2017-2019. He has been the Marie Curie Professor of the Paris Science & Lettres University & Institut Curie since 2017. Philip current works as a medical advisor for Sordina IORT Technologies spa and as a radiation oncologist at Iridium Kankernetwerk, with an affiliation with the University of Antwerp, Belgium.
Philip is especially interested in breast cancer, quality assurance in clinical trials, malignant lymphoma and rare tumours and most of his publications focus on these topics. Internationally, in the framework of the ESTRO School of Radiotherapy and Oncology, he serves as course director of the teaching course “Multidisciplinary Management of Breast Cancer”, on alternate years general and for (A)PBI, and as liaison person for multidisciplinary courses. He is currently a member of the faculty for educational activities of ESMO; ESSO and ESO. Philip has also been a member of the editorial committees of several guidelines for breast cancer (EUSOMA; ESTRO; ESMO; St Gallen) and for cancer and pregnancy (ESGO / INCIP; ESMO; AKZ (Adviesgroep Kanker en Zwangerschap) for several years now. He is also the Co-Chare of ECCO’s Quality Cancer Care Network and has a coordinating role for the "Essential requirements for quality cancer care".
Dr Reena Ramsaroop
Clinical director of surgical pathology, Waitemata District Health Board
Reena graduated from the University of Natal Medical School as a Fellow of the College of Pathologists (South Africa). She then practised as Consultant Pathologist/Senior Lecturer at the Natal Medical School. In 1996, Reena emigrated to New Zealand, practising at Diagnostic Medlab.
Since her arrival in New Zealand, Reena has completed her Ph.D (2000) and The Australasian College of Pathologist Fellowship. She developed her subspecialty interests in gynaecology, oncology and breast pathology with presentations and publications. She is the Clinical Director of Surgical Pathology, Waitemata District Health Board.
For many years Reena was the lead Pathologist for Breast Screen Limited (Auckland Central) and actively pursued research projects in women’s health. She was a member of the BreastScreen Advisory Group, an active member of the Auckland Breast Cancer Study Group and was president of the NZ Society of Cytology. Reena was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2013 New Year Honours in recognition of her services as a histocytopathologist.
Dr George W Sledge Jr.
Professor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
Dr George W. Sledge, Jr. is Professor of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine where he serves as a member of the Division of Oncology. From 2013- 2020 he served as Chief of the Division of Oncology and is currently co-director of the Stanford Cancer Institute’s Cancer Therapeutics Program. Trained in internal medicine and medical oncology, he has devoted his professional career to understanding the biology and improving the treatment of breast cancer. He is active as both a laboratory and clinical researcher, with more than 390 scientific publications. He served as chair of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group’s Breast Cancer Committee (2003-2010), as a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s Oncology Drug Advisory Committee, and as a member of the Department of Defense’s Breast Cancer Research Program’s Integration Panel as well as the National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Trails Advisory Board. He is Past President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and currently serves as the Chief Scientific Advisor for the Susan G. Komen Foundation and as a member of the scientific advisory board for the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation. He is the recipient of numerous scientific awards, including the Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s Jill Rose Award, the Komen Foundation’s Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction, the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium’s William L. McGuire Award and the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Gianni Bonadonna Award. His research interests have focused on novel biologic approaches to breast cancer therapy.
Dr Eletha Taylor
Breast surgical oncologist, Auckland City Hospital
Eletha did her medical degree at the University of Auckland and completed her surgical training in New Zealand. That was followed by a fellowship in oncoplastic breast surgery at Royal Perth Hospital, under the supervision of top surgeon Christobel Saunders. Eletha also completed fellowships at the Melanoma Institute of Australia, and back here in Auckland City Hospital. She is now head of the breast surgery unit at Auckland City Hospital.
Prof Alastair Thompson
Section Chief of Breast Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine
Professor Alastair Thompson is Section Chief of Breast Surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Co-Director of the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center, and Olga Keith Wiess Chair of Surgery. He is past Professor of Surgical Oncology at the University of Dundee, UK (2002-2014), King James IV Professor of Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (2001) and past Professor of Surgery (with Tenure) at The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (2014-2018).
Following training as a clinician scientist in Scotland, he initiated and lead a highly successful breast cancer laboratory program, lead the Cancer Center and Experimental Cancer Medicine Center in Dundee. He chaired the United Kingdom National Cancer Research Institute, Breast Clinical Studies Group from 2010 and has engaged in a range of pivotal roles in key drug, radiation therapy and surgical trials. Since moving to the United States in 2014, leadership positions at national and international level have included in the TBCRC (Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium; Loco-regional Subgroup co-Chair), SWOG (South West Oncology Group; Translational Medicine Breast Group Chair), two National Cancer Institute task forces and multiple steering groups for international trials. He is author on over 350 peer-reviewed original scientific articles.
Dr Monica Saini
Senior radiologist, Hutt Valley District Health Board
Monica completed her radiology training in the U.S. at the University of Wisconsin and an additional fellowship in women’s imaging from the University of Washington. She has over 10 years of patient care experience and was the chairman of the cancer committee and chief of breast imaging at Santa Fe Imaging / Christus St Vincent Hospital in the southwestern U.S. from 2008 to 2016. In 2015, she became a medical advisor for GE Healthcare and consultant for ProScan Imaging, as well as research advisor for World Care Clinical. By 2016, she was appointed Medical Director of Automated Breast Ultrasound Systems, GE Healthcare. Globally, she worked on early detection of breast cancer, breast cancer research, and international physician education for breast imaging technologies.
Monica and her family relocated to New Zealand in 2017. Monica works as the senior radiologist at Hutt Valley District Health Board in Wellington where she evaluates patients. She is the chief medical advisor for Volpara Health Technologies where she implements hands-on expertise in research and product development.
Prof Diana Sarfati
Chief executive, Cancer Control Agency
Professor Diana Sarfati (MBChB, MPH, PhD, FNZCPHM) is Chief Executive for Cancer Control. Diana was appointed as Head of the Department of Public Health in 2014, and was the Director of the Cancer and Chronic Conditions (C3) research group at University of Otago, Wellington. She has led a large body of research relating to disparities in cancer outcomes. This work has resulted in the identification of key patient and health system factors that influence cancer survival. It has been used extensively by health policy makers, clinicians and other researchers to develop policies and practices that aim to reduce inequities in cancer outcomes.
Diana is currently a member of the International Advisory Committee to Lancet Oncology, the Advisory Committee to International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) Pacific cancer hub, IARC’s international expert group on social inequalities in cancer, the Academic Advisory Committee on the International Cancer Benchmarking Project, and she led a Lancet Oncology series on cancer in small island developing states. Diana is a former member of the National Cancer Programme Leadership Board, the National Screening Advisory Group, the National Ethics Advisory Committee, the Bowel Cancer Taskforce and the National Bowel Cancer Screening Advisory Committee.
Prof Christobel Saunders
Professor of Surgical Oncology, The University of Western Australia
Professor Christobel Saunders AO, is internationally recognised as one of Australia’s most prominent research-orientated cancer surgeons. She has substantially contributed to breast cancer research, including clinical trials of new treatments, psychosocial, translational and health services research and is active in several areas of surgical oncology cancer research, with a particular emphasis on breast cancer. In recognition of her sustained career excellence Christobel has been publicly acknowledged through awards and honours, the most recent being the AO (Order of Australia) (2018), Uccio Querci della Rovere Award (2018), International Women’s Day WA Women’s Hall of Fame Inductee (2018) and WA Scientist of the Year (2017). In the past five years, Christobel has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, six letters to the editor/editorials, two research reports, two book chapters and one book. She sits on the boards of cancer organisations such as the ANZ Breast Cancer Trials Group and is President of the Breast Surgical Society of Australia and NZ. She is closely involved in strategic planning and management of cancer services in Western Australia as author of the WA Health Cancer Services Framework, past President of the Cancer Council WA, and nationally as past Advisory Council member of organisations such as Cancer Australia.
Dr Anna van der Voort
Netherlands Cancer Institute
Anna completed medical school at the University of Groningen, and her senior internship in Medical Oncology in Netherlands Cancer institute. She is now a PhD student at the Department of Medical Oncology in the Netherlands Cancer Institute, and since 2018 Anna has worked in the research group of prof. Gabe Sonke, focused on optimizing neo-adjuvant treatment for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer. She is involved in various clinical trials and accompanying biomarker research. Anna received the Kathleen I. Pritchard, MD, Endowed Merit Award for her presentation on the three-year follow-up of neoadjuvant chemotherapy with or without anthracyclines in the presence of dual HER2-blockade for HER2-positive breast cancer (TRAIN-2) at ASCO 2020.
Professor Gabe S. Sonke
Head of the Department of Medical Oncology, Netherlands Cancer Institute
Mike Messenger
Visiting Professor, University of Leeds
Mike has worked in the medical technologies industry for more than 18 years, with a career spanning pharmaceuticals, advanced therapies, medical devices, in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) and more recently artificial intelligence. His ambition is to improve human health through the application of safe and effective medical technologies and his research has focused on refining and improving the methods, processes, policies and environment for efficiently progressing devices towards the end goals of market approval and patient benefit. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Leeds and an independent In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) consultant, providing advice to the UK Department for Health and Social Care, European Union; National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NHS England and multiple global diagnostic companies. He's a co-investigator on >£30M of research funding, including Cancer Research UK 's CANTEST programme, Yorkshire Cancer Research's Lung Screening Trial and the NIHR COVID-19 National DiagnOstic Research and Evaluation Platform (CONDOR). He was previously the Head of the Leeds Centre for Personalised Medicine and Health and the Deputy Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) In-Vitro Diagnostic Co-Operative (MIC).
Robert Salgado
Anatomic pathologist, Belgium
Roberto Salgado is board-certified in anatomical pathology since 2006 and works as an anatomic pathologist in Antwerp, Belgium. He’s Honorary Research Associate at the Division of Research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center, Melbourne, as well as being part of the Tracer-X Consortium. Currently, he’s co-chairing with Sherene Loi, Peter MacCallum Cancer Center, an international consortium of pathologists, namely the “International Immuno-Oncology Biomarkers Working Group” developing guidelines for the assessment of immuno-oncological biomarkers in cancer. This Working Group aims to develop guidelines and tools to help pathologists implement TILs in daily and clinical trial practices, publishing 10 manuscripts over the past five years. His strategic views on oncology have been published in major international high-impact factor journals such as Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery and Lancet Oncology. He also co-developed major internal EORTC policies and documents on criteria for evaluating/auditing biobanking and molecular laboratories. In addition, he’s an auditor on Molecular Pathology/Genetic laboratories for the Federal Belgian Government. He has developed a specific expertise in the molecular pathology of solid tumours, circulating tumor biomarkers, next generation sequencing technologies, validation of biomarkers, innovative clinical trials incorporating genomics, quality assurance of genomic technologies and development of biomarkers in immunotherapeutic trials, with a focus on tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). Finally, he is a member of the WHO Editorial Board of the WHO Classification of Breast Tumours, 5th edition.