The ESMO Breast Cancer Award was established in 2019 to acknowledge distinguished experts who have devoted a major part of their career and made a special contribution to the discovery and development of education, research and clinical practice in the breast cancer field.
The ESMO Breast Cancer Award is presented at the annual ESMO Breast Cancer congress and the Award recipient is invited to give a keynote lecture during the opening session.
2025 – Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, USA
The 2025 ESMO Breast Cancer Award is presented to Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, Professor of Medicine in the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. With a distinguished career spanning over five decades, he has dedicated his work to clinical and translational research, teaching and mentoring the next generation of scientists and academic leadership. Hortobagyi is recognised for his remarkable contributions to the breast cancer field, including his role in the introduction of anthracyclines, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, combined modality therapy in the 1970s, to his work on taxanes and bisphosphonates in the 1990s, and his more recent work on the development of everolimus, alpelisib and ribociclib that has led to advancements in the standard of care for managing primary and metastatic, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.
Hortobagyi will deliver his award lecture titled: “Development of targeted therapies for HR+ breast cancer” during the opening session of the ESMO Breast Cancer 2025 congress, on Wednesday, 14 May.
Previous recipients of the ESMO Breast Cancer Award
- Hope S. Rugo (2024)
- Sara A. Hurvitz (2023)
- Sibylle Loibl (2022)
- Andrew Tutt (2021)
- Sherene Loi (2020)
- Jonas Bergh (2019)
Nomination and selection process
The recipient is nominated by the ESMO Breast Cancer congress Scientific Committee based on the following eligibility criteria.
The candidate must:
- have made a special contribution to breast cancer research, education and clinical practice
- be an individual (institutions and organisations are not eligible)
- be an oncology professional, medical or clinical oncologist or researcher
- be an ESMO member
The candidate must not:
- be a current member of the ESMO Executive Board, the ESMO Council or the ESMO Nomination Committee, nor have served on these committees within the last two (2) years
- be a past recipient of the ESMO Breast Cancer Award
- have received any other Award from ESMO within the last five (5) years
- be a Scientific Co-Chair of the ESMO Breast Cancer congress
Members of the Scientific Committee are eligible however they may not nominate themselves. More than one nomination is allowed.
Final selection is made by the Selection Committee: ESMO President, ESMO President-Elect, ESMO Past-President, Chair of the ESMO Nomination Committee.