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Prof. Dr. Ignace B. Vergote
Professor, Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Gynaecologic Oncology, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
Dr. Vergote, initially trained in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, before specialising in Gynaecologic Oncology in the Department of Gynaecologic Oncology at the Norwegian Radium Hospital, where he later became staff member and in 1991 deputy chairman.
Professor Vergote has been Chairman of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Gynecologic Cancer Group from 1997 to 2003, and is currently the chairman of the Protocol committee of that group.
He served as President of the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology (ESGO) for the period 2003-2005. For the period 2006-2008 he was the President of the International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS). He was the founding member of the Flemish Gynecologic Oncology Group and served as first chairman of that group from 1996-2001. Currently, he is the Chairman of the Flemish Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Vice-President of the Society of Robotic European Gynaecological Surgery (SERGS) and Coordinator of the European Network of Gynaecological Oncological Trial groups (ENGOT).
In 2004 he received the Wertheim price in Austria and the COBRA price for surgical expertise in the Netherlands. In 2008, he became Honorary Member of the Finish Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics. He is a member of various other professional societies such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Society of Gynecologic Oncology and the Society of Pelvic Surgeons.
Professor Vergote's main areas of clinical and research interest focus on the medical and surgical treatment of gynaecological cancer. He has authored 450 original full papers in peer-reviewed journals, together with 50 book chapters, and edited several books on Gynaecological Oncology. He is also Senior Editor of the International Journal of Gynaecological Cancer, and past-Associate Editor of Gynecologic Oncology. He is also member of the Editorial Board of numerous other medical journals such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
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James Tate Thigpen, MD
Professor of Medicine and Director, Division of Medical Oncology University of Mississippi Medical Center Jackson, Mississippi
Dr. Thigpen is a professor of medicine and director, division of medical oncology, department of internal medicine, at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi. Dr. Thigpen received both his undergraduate degree in chemistry and his medical degree from the University of Mississippi. He completed his internship at the Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, and his residency at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. His certifications include Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), as well as hematology and oncology subspecialty certifications from the ABIM.
Dr. Thigpen is a member of the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association, the American Federation for Clinical Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American Society of Hematology, among other organizations. Dr. Thigpen's research interests focus on gynecologic cancers. He is Group Vice Chair for Science and Chair of the Protocol Committee for the Gynecologic Oncology Group, a position he has held for 28 years. He is the author of more than 250 original articles, book chapters, review articles, and abstracts and has published in such peer-reviewed journals as Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer, New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, and Journal of the American Medical Association. He has been an invited presenter nationally and internationally.
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Prof. Dr. Ahmad Awada
Prof. Dr. Awada is Head of the Medical Oncology Clinic at the Institut Jules Bordet in Brussels, Belgium and a principal investigator in Nektar's Phase 2 study of NKTR-102 in metastatic breast cancer.
Professor Ahmad Awada was born in Lebanon and studied medicine at the Free University in Brussels (ULB), Belgium. He specialised in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at Jules Bordet Institute (under the supervision of Professor Jean Klastersky), in Brussels, until 1992 ("La plus grande distinction"). During his specialisation, he completed his training in the clinical development of new therapies and new anticancer drugs (under the supervision of Professor Martine Piccart).
In order to deepen his training, he stayed both in the Netherlands (New Drug Development Office, Free University, Amsterdam) and in San Antonio, USA (Institute for Drug Development, under the direction of Professor D. Von Hoff). He focused on the clinical development for new anticancer agents.
Back from the USA at the beginning of 1994, Dr. Awada became Assistant Head of the Medical Oncology Clinic, and Head of the New Drugs Development Unit at Jules Bordet Institute, Brussels. He is currently Head of the Medical Oncology Clinic since April 2005 and has an important clinical activity in the treatment of solid tumors. Dr. Awada also played an active part in the development of new drugs, some of them already widely used.
Thanks to the recent progress in technology and computer sciences, and consequently in molecular biology, we can better understand how a cancer cell works and how it becomes a cancer cell. Many drugs are now studied to block this process. These are molecular-targeted therapies; a subject studied extensively in clinical research by Dr. Awada and was the basis for his thesis obtained from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, in 2004.
The aim of Dr. Awada, as far as research is concerned, is to look for new active anticancer drugs in solid tumors (new cytotoxics and molecular targeted therapies), and to individualize the treatments according to the tumor characteristics.
Dr. Awada is member of several societies and responsible teacher at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He received 2 awards, one of them from the Medicine Royal Academy. He has also published 23 book chapters, 120 articles in international publications and 26 articles in Belgian publications.
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Joyce O'Shaughnessy, MD
Joyce O'Shaughnessy, MD, is a medical oncologist specializing in breast cancer at Texas Oncology, PA, US Oncology, at the Baylor-Sammons Cancer Center in Dallas. She is Co-Director of Breast Cancer Research for US Oncology's Research and holds the Celebrating Women Endowed Chair in Breast Cancer Research at the Baylor-Sammons Cancer Center. Dr. O'Shaughnessy's major research focus is in developing novel translational treatment strategies for breast cancer.
After graduating from Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, Dr. O'Shaughnessy completed her MD at the Yale School of Medicine. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, followed by a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland. She is board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology.
Dr. O'Shaughnessy held several positions at the NCI, including Senior Investigator of the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) and Special Assistant to the Director of the NCI, where she delineated new cancer drug approval endpoints with the NCI and CTEP. In the NCI Medicine Branch, she directed clinical trials on breast cancer prevention and treatment.
Dr. O'Shaughnessy has served in a number of professional societies, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Scientific Program Committee and was the Chair of the ASCO Nominating Committee. Dr. O’Shaughnessy chaired the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Task Force on Treatment of Intraepithelial Neoplasia (IEN), which published clinical trial strategies to accelerate development of new agents for IEN. She currently serves as Program Director for the School of Breast Oncology.
Dr. O'Shaughnessy is Associate Editor of Clinical Breast Cancer and serves on the editorial boards of several oncology journals and on numerous breast cancer scientific advisory boards. She has authored more than 160 peer-reviewed publications.
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