In parallel with the European Society for Medical Oncology’s (ESMO) publication of its 2025 Vision, which builds on the core priorities and objectives set out in its Vision 2020, ESMO has finalized its 2021 composition of expert committees and working groups, including newly appointed faculty members across various tumor types.
ESMO’s serving officers, including those who have just started their respective mandates this year, share a common goal: to support ESMO’s leadership, its members, partners, collaborators, patient advocates and other key stakeholders, to collectively deliver on its mission and vision, as well as promote ESMO’s guiding principles and fundamental values.
“Having served as ESMO President for the 2018-2019 term, I have witnessed first-hand just how the committed efforts of all the experts in oncology who serve across its Committees, Working Groups, including appointed Faculty and many other dedicated champions, contribute to advancing the society as well as benefiting the entire oncology community and the people matter most; our patients,” said Josep Tabernero, VHIO’s Director, who sits on ESMO’s Executive Board as Past-President, is an Associate Editor of ESMO’s flagship journal, Annals of Oncology, and is also a Member of its Council, Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale Working Group, as well as its European Policy, Nominations, and Women for Oncology Committees.
On behalf of all of us at VHIO, we congratulate all of our scientists and clinical investigators who have been appointed this year as members of just some of ESMO’s expert groups, committees, and Editorial Boards. They join previously appointed VHIO faculty who also currently serve the Society*.
VHIO researchers’ take on their new ESMO roles
In celebration of these recent ESMO appointments, VHIO’s Global Communications invited each of them for a brief comment:
Principal Investigator, VHIO’s Gynecological Malignancies Group.
Ana Oaknin, who has now been appointed as an ESMO Guidelines Committee Subject Editor, and also serves as a Gynecologic Cancer Faculty Member, said, “Working alongside my co-Subject Editor, Jonathan Ledermann, we will build on the successes to-date by robustly reviewing, and updating ESMO’s portfolio of Clinical Practice Guidelines, Pocket Guidelines and Slide Sets. As importantly, we will seek to prioritize educational opportunities by co-organizing interactive Guideline sessions in gynecological malignancies at ESMO Congresses.”
Teresa Macarulla, Principal Investigator, VHIO’s Gastrointestinal & Endocrine Tumors Group
Teresa Macarulla, now serving as an Editorial Board Member of ESMO’s flagship and multidisciplinary journal, Annals of Oncology (IF: 18.274), noted, “I am honored to have been appointed as an Editor of Annals of Oncology. Together with the journal’s Editor in Chief, Fabrice André, the other expert Associate Editors, and subject Editors, I am truly committed to delivering on the journal’s overarching goal, namely, to provide the oncology community with the best communication on the fast moving, and continually evolving, global oncology landscape.”
Principal Investigator, VHIO’s Hereditary Cancer Genetics Group.
In addition to Judith Balmaña’s present role as Faculty Coordinator of ESMO’s Cancer Genetics Group, as well as her collaboration in the compilation and updating of its Clinical Practice Guidelines, she will now also serve as a Member of ESMO’s Cancer Prevention Faculty. Commenting for VHIO Communications she observed, “Working alongside the other expert members belonging to ESMO’s Cancer Prevention Faculty, coordinated by Nadir Arber, I am dedicated to helping ESMO with its educational responsibilities, programs and actions; particularly those that aim to reduce the risk of developing cancer, improve the quality of cancer care, and tackle the global burden of this disease head on.”
Principal Investigator, VHIO’s Sarcoma Translational Research Group.
Claudia Valverde, Medical Oncologist and Clinical Investigator, VHIO’s Genitourinary, CNS Tumors & Cancer of Unknown Primary Site Group (PI: Joan Carles).
César Serrano and Claudia Valverde have both been appointed as new Members of ESMO’s Sarcoma Faculty. “We are excited to work together with the other leading experts who belong to ESMO’s Faculty in Sarcoma, headed by coordinator Silvia Stacchiotti, in order to further strengthen ESMO’s educational activities, programs and platforms, as well as act as ESMO spokespeople in the sarcoma field,” said César Serrano.
“As ESMO members with special expertise in the sarcoma field, we are committed to strengthening the multidisciplinary approach to cancer. We will therefore work with other experts and join together to advance translational cancer science and clinical research at ESMO Congresses, Courses, Preceptorships, ESMO Summits and International meetings.” added Claudia Valverde.
Cristina Suarez, Medical Oncologist and Clinical Investigator, VHIO’s Genitourinary, CNS Tumors & Cancer of Unknown Primary Site Group (PI: Joan Carles).
Cristina Suarez has started her mandate as a Member of ESMO’s Genitourinary Tumors, Non-Prostate Faculty, coordinated by Laurence Albiges. “As an ESMO Educational Representative, I am dedicated to supporting the Society to deliver on its various educational objectives and the development of its established programs. I will continue to collaborate in the updating of ESMO’s Guidelines to provide guidance on the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of renal cell carcinoma. To prepare and nurture the careers of ESMO’s more junior members, I will also seek to collaborate in ESMO’s E-learning project and its OncologyPRO program,” noted Cristina Suarez.
We also take this opportunity to congratulate Javier Cortés, Head of Breast Cancer and Gynecological Cancers at the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital in Madrid, and Associate Translational Researcher at VHIO, who is a Member of ESMO’s Breast Cancer Faculty, and Maria Alsina – formerly a Medical Oncologist and Clinical Investigator of VHIO’s Gastrointestinal & Endocrine Tumors Group- who has now commenced her mandate as ESMO Faculty Member, Gastrointestinal Tumours, non-Colorectal, and Editorial Board Member of Annals of Oncology.
To discover more about ESMO’s organizational structure, its boards, expert groups, committees, task forces, and programs, as well as its ESMO Vision 2025 with the fundamental value of care at its core, please visit: www.esmo.org.
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* Previously appointed VHIO faculty who also currently serve on ESMO Committees, Task Forces, Groups and Editorial Boards:
Josep Tabernero, VHIO’s Director
Josep sits on ESMO’s Executive Board as Past-President (2018-2019), and is a Member of its Council, Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale Working Group, as well as its European Policy, Nominations (Ex officio), and Women for Oncology Committees (Extended Member). He also serves as an Associate Editor, Gastrointestinal Tumors, for Annals of Oncology as well as ESMO Open.
Enriqueta Felip, Principal Investigator, Thoracic Tumors & Head and Neck Cancer
Enriqueta serves as a Member of ESMO’s Nomination Committee and Extended Member of its Women for Oncology (W4O) Committees.
Elena Garralda, Director, VHIO’s Research Unit for Molecular Therapy of Cancer (UITM) – “la Caixa”, and Principal Investigator, Early Clinical Drug Development.
Elena is an appointed Core Member of its Women for Oncology Committee (W4O).
Rodrigo Dienstmann, Principal Investigator, Oncology Data Science (ODysSey).
Rodrigo serves as Member of ESMO’s Press & Media Affairs Committee.
Elena Élez, Medical Oncologist and Clinical Investigator, Gastrointestinal & Endocrine Tumors
Elena is a Member of ESMO’s Resilience Task Force as well as ESMO’s Leaders Generation Programme Alumni Europe.
Joan Seoane, who leads VHIO’s Preclinical & Translational co-Program, and Joaquin Mateo, Principal Investigator, Prostate Cancer Translational Research, are both Members of ESMO’s Translational Research and Precision Medicine Working Group, which is also chaired by Joaquin – who also serves on ESMO’s Educational Committee as an Ex-Officio Member.
Alena Gros, Principal Investigator, Tumor Immunology & Immunotherapy Group
Alena serves on the Editorial Board of ESMO’s peer reviewed, open access journal, Immuno-Oncology and Technology (IOTECH).
