Professor University of Barcelona, and Head of Medical Oncology Department at Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, and Head of Translational Genomics & Targeted Therapeutics in Solid Tumours Group, August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS)

(speaking via livestream)

Dr Aleix Prat is president of the Governing Board, and previously coordinator of the Scientific Board, of the Spanish Breast Cancer Cooperative Research Group (SOLTI) that performs clinical trials of excellence in oncology. In 2018, he joined the Executive Board of The Breast International Group (BIG), an international non-profit organization that includes more than 56 cooperative groups from around the world, more than 10,000 experts and links to more than 3,000 hospitals.

Dr Prat is recognised worldwide as a leading research scientist in the field of breast cancer genomics and biomarker development, an interest that gew out of his fellowship after completing a Masters of Molecular Oncology at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, CNIO (Madrid, 2008). During his post-doctoral work at Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA) in the laboratory of Prof. Charles M. Perou, Dr Prat discovered and characterised Claudin-low a new molecular subtype of breast cancer (Prat et al. Breast Cancer Research 2010). He participated in The Cancer Genome Atlas breast cancer project (Nature 2012), the most important molecular characterization study ever performed in breast cancer. Since 2007, he has actively taken part in a total of 219 publications (46 as 1st author and 35 as senior author).

Professor, Chair of Surgery and Head of Department of Surgery at the University of Melbourne, and consultant surgeon at Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute

Christobel Saunders 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. In recognition of her sustained career excellence and innovation, Christobel has been publicly acknowledged through numerous awards and honours including Order of Australia 2018, the Uccio Querci della Rovere Award (2018), WA Women’s Hall of Fame Inductee (2018), WA Scientist of the Year (2017) and Cancer Council WA career Achievement Award (2021). She has performed research for >30 years evaluating the efficacy and utility of therapy for early breast cancer.

In the past five years, Christobel has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles (two in The Lancet), six letters to the editor/editorials, two research reports, two book chapters and one book. She sits on the boards of a number of health and research organisations including as Vice-President for All.can International and on the boards of All.can Australia, Breast Cancer Trials, the Australian Centre for Value Based Health Care and PathWest. Christobel is closely involved in strategic planning and management of health and cancer services in Australia including being on the Medicare Review Advisory Committee, past President of the Cancer Council WA and Breast Surgical Society of ANZ, and past Advisory Council member of Cancer Australia. She was Inaugural Chair of the state Health Service Provider, PathWest Laboratory Medicine.

Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, and Section Head, HER2 Breast Cancer Program, and Medical Oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

(speaking via livestream)

Dr Modi received her medical degree from the University of Alberta in Canada, where she also completed a residency in internal medicine. She undertook subspecialty training in medical oncology at the Cross Cancer Institute and subsequently completed a 4-year fellowship in breast cancer research at MSKCC. She has been a full-time faculty member on the Breast Medicine Service at MSKCC since 2005.

She has had a clinical research career in the development of HER2 targeted therapies and is currently the Section Head for HER2 Breast Cancer Program for the Breast Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She is a member of the Expert Committee to establish Guidelines for Patients with Advanced HER2+ Breast Cancer, where she serves on the Breast Cancer Consensus Panel, and a member of the Scientific Committee for ESMO as part of the metastatic breast cancer track responsible for abstract selection.

Dr Modi was chair and member of the Scientific Program Committee for HER2 Positive Breast Cancer from 2013-2016 and a member of the grant selection committee for ASCO from 2013 to 2015. She received the Conquer Cancer Foundation Advanced Clinical Research Award in 2009 for her work in Heat Shock Protein Inhibition, and held the Patricia and James Cayne Chair for Junior Faculty at MSKCC from 2009-2012.

Radiation Oncologist
Peter McCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne

Dr Steven David is a radiation oncologist who graduated from the University of Western Australia before completing his specialist training at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. Subsequently, he took up a position as a sub-specialist in breast and lung cancer at the Peter MacCallum Moorabbin campus (Monash Cancer Centre). Steven has been the lead investigator in a number of local clinical trials and has been involved in recruitment to a number of international trials. His current areas of research include development and implementation of a Deep Inspiration Breath Hold Technique to reduce radiation to the heart for patients with left sided breast cancer and the use of high dose precision radiation (SABR) for the treatment of patients with metastatic disease.

Professor of Medical Oncology, University of Milano, and Chief of Advanced Drug Development Division and Consultant of the Breast Oncology Service, European Institute of Oncology

Dr Curigliano is a world expert in the field of advanced drug development in solid tumors. He founded and runs the Molecular Tumour Board at European Institute of Oncology in Milano. His research is based on the development of molecularly targeted therapies against specific genetic subtypes of solid tumors, such as those characterised by the presence of fusions. Since 2001 he has been a full-time cancer specialist at European Institute of Oncology – one of the world’s leading cancer-research institutes and the premier cancer centre in Italy and third in Europe. His division runs from 40 to 60 phase I trials each year. He is a leading clinical scientist in cancer precision medicine in EU. He has served on the Scientific Committee for the St Gallen Conference since 2011, and was the Scientific Co-Chair in St Gallen 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023. He served as the Scientific Chair of the IMPAKT ESMO meeting (Brussels 2014) and as Breast Cancer Track Chair of ESMO 2014. He served as Scientific Co-Chair of the ESMO Breast Cancer Congress in 2019, 2020 and 2021. He is an Editorial Board Member for Annals of Oncology, and serves as Co-Editor in Chief of The Breast, Co-Editor in Chief of Cancer Treatment Reviews, Associate Editor of the European Journal of Cancer, Editor of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Dr Curigliano serves ESMO as Chair of the Guidelines Committee. He has contributed to over 595 peer-reviewed publications.

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 head of the breast surgery unit at Auckland City Hospital.

General and Breast Surgeon, Southland Hospital

Paul graduated from the University of Otago in 1999, completing his fellowship in 2009, before training in breast, endocrine and melanoma surgery at Auckland’s North Shore Hospital. He has been working as a consultant general surgeon in Invercargill, in both public and private practice, since 2010. He is a senior clinical lecturer with the University of Otago, and sits on multiple charitable and private hospital clinical committees, National Training committee for General Surgery, and is involved with the Breast Cancer Foundation National Register.

Medical Oncologist, Wellington Regional Hospital

Biography coming soon

Medical Oncologist, Wellington Regional Hospital
Secretary, NZ Breast SIG

Sarah is a medical oncologist with a special interest in treating breast cancer. Following advanced training in Auckland and a clinical fellowship in the Royal Marsden in London, she has been working in Wellington since 2013. Sarah is currently the secretary for the NZ Breast SIG.

(Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Hauā, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Hako), Board member, Te Aka Whai Ora - Māori Health Authority

Sharon is an experienced board member and has held roles on both private and public sector organisations. She often fulfils Ministerial appointed roles in health and other sectors and has held or holds governance roles in research, education, transport, start-up IT, and philanthropy.

Ms Shea is the owner/operator of a private public sector management consulting company, Shea Pita & Associates Ltd, and has extensive experience in system and service design, strategy, outcomes-based commissioning and data. Ms Shea’s experience is extensive in the health sector, and she also offers experience across education, corrections, justice, social services and broader Māori development/Whānau Ora and Whanau Resilience/Manawaroa.

Ms Shea has a BA/LLB (Auckland) and a Masters in Comparative Social Policy (Distinction) from Oxford University. Ms Shea has significant governance and leadership experience across the health, disability and community sectors. She lives in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland.

Professor of Surgery, University of Melbourne, and Director of Breast Tumour Stream, Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, and Director of Research, Breast Cancer Trials

Professor Bruce Mann is Professor of Surgery at The University of Melbourne, Director of the Breast Tumour Stream at the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre and is Director of Research at Breast Cancer Trials.

He has facilitated clinical and translational research into all aspects of breast cancer via the development and maintenance of extensive clinical data collection. His research interests focus on tailored screening and treatment for early breast cancer. He was PI on Australia’s first decision impact study of Oncotype Dx, PI on a validation study of the DCISionRT assay for DCIS, national PI of the POSNOC study of axillary treatment for those with positive sentinel nodes, and is an instigator and principal investigator of the PROSPECT trial.

Oncoplastic breast surgeon, Tauranga Hospital

Peter graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1994 and completed his surgical training in New Zealand 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.

Consultant Radiation Oncologist, Auckland Radiation Oncology

Maria trained at the University of Otago’s Medical School and has worked as a consultant radiation oncologist at both Auckland City Hospital and Auckland Radiation Oncology. She has been a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists and has completed a Clinical Fellowship at the Toronto Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre in Canada.