The Executive Board is BIG's main scientific and decision making authority. The Board meets several times a year to see that decisions taken by the General Assembly are carried out and to ensure the smooth running of the association. It is assisted by the Advisory Council in fulfilling its duties and responsibilities.
Board members are elected every four years at the General Assembly, which comprises all member groups and serves as highest authority with respect to overall direction of the association.
The 2010-2014 BIG Executive Board consists of:
Martine Piccart-Gebhart, MD, PhD, Chair
Aron Goldhirsch, MD, Vice-chair
Michael Gnant, MD, Treasurer
José Baselga, MD, PhD
David Cameron, MD
Angelo Di Leo, MD, PhD
Mitchell Dowsett, BSc, PhD
Richard Gelber, PhD
Gunter von Minckwitz, MD, PhD
Martine Piccart-Gebhart, MD, PhD,
Chair
Martine J Piccart-Gebhart is Professor of Oncology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Director of the Medicine Department at the Institut Jules Bordet, Belgium.
She received her medical degree in 1978 and her internal medicine certification in 1983 at the ULB. She earned her oncology qualification (1983-1985) from the Division of Oncology at the New York University (NYU) Medical Center, became certified in European Medical Oncology in London in 1989, and earned her PhD from the ULB in 1993.
Dr Piccart-Gebhart is a member of numerous professional organisations, currently serving as president-elect of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). She is immediate past-president of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and recently served as member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) board.
In 1996, Dr Piccart-Gebhart founded the Breast International Group (BIG) and currently serves as Chair. A translational research consortium created to complement BIG’s clinical research network, TRANSBIG, was founded by Dr Piccart-Gebhart in 2004.
She has served as first author or co-author of more than 300 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and has published over 50 book chapters. She has received numerous awards in recognition of her achievements in the clinical research field.
She plays an active role in new drug development and has been particularly involved in the development of paclitaxel, docetaxel, capecitabine, trastuzumab, letrozole, exemestane, and pegfilgrastim.
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Aron Goldhirsch, MD
Vice-chair
Aron Goldhirsch is a medical oncologist and clinical trials research scientist. Dr Goldhirsch is currently Director of the Department of Medicine at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO), Milan, Italy, and Physician-in-Chief of Medical Oncology at the Research Division of the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, Bellinzona, Switzerland, as well as Co-Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG, formerly Ludwig Group). He is Professor (by title) for Medical Oncology at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
Dr Goldhirsch has received several international prizes and recognitions among which a PhD Honoris Causa (University of Gothenburg) and is author of more than 600 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in reference books and editor or co-editor of 10 books. He is also on the editorial board of several oncology and breast cancer research journals.
Dr Goldhirsch’s areas of research include new adjuvant treatments for breast cancer, definition of biological features that predict responsiveness or resistance to anti-cancer treatments, and quality-of-life-oriented approaches.
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Michael Gnant, MD
Treasurer
Michael Gnant is Full Professor of Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, where he also serves as President of the Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group (ABCSG).
His medical career began in 1988 when he graduated in medicine in Vienna. He then specialised in surgery (1994) and surgical oncology. In 1997 and 1998 he worked as a Visiting Scientist at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, USA, and in 2004 he became Full Professor at the Medical University of Vienna. In 2009, Prof Gnant was appointed as future Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna. He is also involved in the coordination of the Comprehensive Cancer Center Vienna.
Prof Gnant has published more than 260 original papers in peer-reviewed journals, more than 700 abstracts, and he has given more than 600 lectures at national and international meetings. In addition, he has been the recipient of multiple national and international awards including the Grand Central European Award for Clinical Cancer Research, Best Paper / Best Poster Awards, and the Award for Interdisciplinary Research in Oncology. He also serves on the prestigious St Gallen Consensus Panel for Early Breast Cancer.
Prof Gnant’s research interests include several fields of surgical oncology, in particular breast and pancreatic cancer, immunotherapy using antibodies, vaccination with dendritic cells, endocrine intervention, dormant tumour cells, and the use of bisphosphonates. He has been the Principal Investigator of more than 20 clinical trials.
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José Baselga, MD, PhD
José Baselga is the Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and Associate Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston where he is also Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr Baselga holds the position of President of SOLTI, the Spanish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group.
His research interests are in clinical breast cancer and in translational and early clinical research. He conducted the initial clinical trials with the monoclonal antibodies cetuximab and trastuzumab and has been involved in the clinical development of several new agents including pertuzumab and PI3K inhibitors. His main focus in the laboratory and in the clinic is in the area of novel anti-HER2 agents, in the identification of mechanisms of resistance to anti-HER2 agents and therapeutic approaches to target the PI3K pathway.
Dr Baselga is currently a member of the AACR Board of Directors, the immediate past President of ESMO and a past member of the Board of Directors of ASCO and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Dr Baselga has received a number of awards including a Young Investigator Award (1992) and a Career Development Award from ASCO (1994), a Brystol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Cancer Grant Award (2002-2006), Elected Member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (2004); AACR-Rosenthal Family Foundation Award (2008); and King James I Award (2008) He is a member of the Editorial Boards of Cancer Cell, Clinical Cancer Research and Annals of Oncology. Dr Baselga has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles.
Dr Baselga received his MD degree from the Universidad Autonoma of Barcelona in 1982. He completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and subsequently stayed on as a faculty member of the Breast Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. From 1996 to 2010 he was the Chairman of the Medical Oncology Service and Founding Director of the recently established Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) at the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain.
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David Cameron, MD
David Cameron received his medical degree in 1986 from St George’s Hospital Medical School, London. After completing a fellowship and MSc in Clinical Oncology at the University of Edinburgh, he received a MD with distinction in 1997.
Prof Cameron is a member of several professional societies including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the European Society for Medical Oncology and is Secretary of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Breast Cancer Group. He has also been a member of the EORTC task force on the use of growth factors in chemotherapy for solid tumours and lymphoma and Chairman of the EORTC New Agent Committee.
He is active in a number of clinical trials in breast cancer. He is a member of the executive committee of the HERA adjuvant herceptin trial, and is a member of the steering group for several UK adjuvant breast cancer trials (AZURE, OPTION, TACT, TANGO and TEAM). He is chief investigator on the recent UK trial adjuvant breast cancer trial, TACT2, exploring the benefit of accelerated Epirubicin chemotherapy in the treatment of breast cancer, and chief investigator of BEATRICE, a global trial testing the possible benefit of adjuvant bevacizumab in triple negative breast cancer.
Between November 2006 and June 2010 he was Director of the NIHR-funded National Cancer Research Networks, and continues as an Associate Director. He recently took up a new post as Professor of Oncology at Edinburgh University and Director of Cancer Services in NHS Lothian. He continues his major clinical interest in breast cancer with an on-going clinical and translational research programme.
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Angelo Di Leo, MD, PhD
Angelo Di Leo is currently Head of the Sandro Pitigliani Medical Oncology Unit, and Chair of the Oncology Department, at the Hospital of Prato, Istituto Toscano Tumori, Italy, a position which he took up in September 2003. The center is affiliated to the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG).
Dr Di Leo graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Palermo (Italy) in 1988, received his postgraduate diploma in Medical Oncology from the University of Pavia (Italy) in 1992 and in 1996, received his European ertification in Medical Oncology, which was issued by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). Dr. Di Leo received his training at the National Cancer Institute in Milan, where he worked for seven years until 1996. From 1996 to 2003 he worked at the Chemotherapy Unit of the Jules Bordet Institute in Brussels, where in 1997 he was appointed Senior staff member and Medical Director of the Breast European Adjuvant Studies Team.
Dr. Di Leo’s main field of research is breast cancer and he has been involved in the coordination of a number of international, pivotal Phase III trials designed to evaluate the efficacy of new adjuvant therapies for breast cancer. Dr. Di Leo is also largely involved in the evaluation of molecular markers with potential predictive value in the treatment of breast cancer patients.
Dr. Di Leo is a member of the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Cooperative Group (EBCTCG) steering committee, a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and he has been a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) grants selection committee (2006-2009). Dr. Di Leo is the author of several articles that have been published in peer-reviewed international journals and has lectured extensively at national and international meetings.
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Mitchell Dowsett, BSc, PhD
Mitchell Dowsett is Head of the Academic Department of Biochemistry at the Royal Marsden Hospital, Professor of Biochemical Endocrinology at the Institute of Cancer Research and Professor in the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre, London, UK.
His major research interests are the endocrinology of breast cancer and biomarkers of response and resistance to treatment. He has a research staff of about 25 and has published over 430 papers on breast cancer. He is chairman of TransATAC, co-chairman of TransHERA, a member of the executive committee of HERA and a member of the steering committee of several other trials. He is co-principal investigator of the POETIC trial, a translational research trial in 4000 patients. He currently chairs the planning committee of the Aromatase Inhibitor Overview Group. He chaired the advisory committee on HER2 testing in the UK and has co-ordinated a number of quality appraisal studies of HER2 analysis. He has served as a member and steering committee member, respectively, of the ASCO/CAP task forces on HER2 and ER/PgR testing and is a member of the Special Awards committee of ASCO.
He is the founding chairman of the National Cancer Research Institute Biomarker and Imaging Clinical Study Group with the remit of co-ordinating and enhancing translational research across the UK’s cancer clinical trial portfolio. He is past chairman of the British Breast Group. He is a Senior Investigator of the UK National Institute of Health Research.
He lectures widely at international meetings and was awarded the 2007 William McGuire Memorial Lectureship at San Antonio.
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Richard Gelber, PhD
Richard D Gelber completed his PhD in operations research at Cornell University in 1975.
He is Professor of Pediatrics (Biostatistics) in the Harvard Medical School and Professor in
Biostatistics in the Harvard School of Public Health and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He has been at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute since 1978 and is the Statistical Director for the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG). He has collaborated in BIG trials since 1997 and is the senior independent statistician for the HERA and (neo)ALTTO studies.
Dr Gelber was the director of statistics for the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group from 1988-1998 and was the senior statistician for the landmark study that demonstrated AZT could significantly reduce the risk of HIV transmission from mother to infant. He also served as a member of the Food and Drug Administration's Oncologic Drug Advisory Committee from 1993 - 1997.
Dr Gelber is the co-developer of two statistical methodologies designed to enhance interpretation of clinical trial data. The Quality-adjusted Time Without Symptoms of disease or Toxicity of treatment method (Q-TWiST) incorporates quality-of-life considerations into treatment comparisons, while the Subpopulation Treatment Effect Pattern Plots (STEPP) facilitates the interpretation of treatment effects derived from different patient subpopulations.
Dr Gelber has received numerous honors including the Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction in Breast Cancer Clinical Research. He was elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1993 and received an Honorary Doctorate in Medicine, University of Gothenborg.
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Gunter von Minckwitz, MD, PhD
Gunter von Minckwitz is the Managing Director of the German Breast Group (GBG) research GmbH. This academic research group is the largest breast cancer group in Germany and recruited up to 4250 breast cancer patients a year, representing 8% of all newly diagnosed patients with this disease. He is also an Associate Professor at the University Women’s Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany, and Alternate Director of Senologic Oncology at the Breast Centre in Düsseldorf.
Along with active involvement as principal investigator in multiple phase I–IV clinical trials in breast cancer, Prof von Minckwitz’s areas of research interest relating to breast cancer include neo-adjuvant and adjuvant therapy, chemoprevention, palliative therapy, and predictive factors in preoperative chemotherapy.
Prof von Minckwitz qualified at the University of Heidelberg Medical School, Germany, and completed his fellowship and residency at the University Women’s Hospital, Heidelberg and the University Women’s Hospital, Frankfurt. A member of numerous scientific societies including the German Cancer Society (DKG), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), Prof von Minckwitz is also a member of several editorial and cooperative group boards. In 2008 he became member of the St Gallen Consensus Panel. He has participated in a large number of national and international clinical trials and he has published widely, authoring and co-authoring over 370 papers and 16 books.
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