Helena Linardou, MD-PhD, is Director of the 4^th Oncology Dept and the Comprehensive Clinical Trials Center of Metropolitan Hospital in Athens, Greece. She graduated in 1989 from the Medical School of Athens University.

From 1992-2000, following Internal Medicine training at Agii Anargiri Cancer Hospital, Athens, she specialized in Medical Oncology at the Royal-Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith and Charing Cross Hospitals, Queen Mary’s University Hospital and Mount Vernon Hospital in London, UK. She completed a research Fellowship in Oncology and obtained her PhD Degree from Imperial College, University of London, in 1997. She worked in the Tumour Targeting Laboratory, Oncology Unit, Hammersmith Hospital, part of the ICRF, now Cancer Research UK, the world’s largest independent cancer research organization. Her group was one of the leaders in molecular oncology/immunology, where she carried out novel pre-clinical research on humanized anti-tumour single-chain antibody-enzyme fusion proteins for cancer targeting. This involved the design, construction and characterization of recombinant DNase-based immunotoxins as anticancer agents, and in vitro development of ‘suicide gene-delivery strategies’- one of the first programs on tumour-targeting with monoclonal antibodies and recombinant cytotoxic chimeras. She was actively involved in novel molecular technology development and participated in the first-in-human studies with humanized monoclonal antibodies.

In 2000 she obtained Board-Certification in Medical Oncology in Greece and joined Metropolitan Hospital, Athens, in 2001 as Consultant and in 2006 as Assistant Director of the 1^st Oncology Dept. In September 2018, she established the 4^th Oncology Dept and the Comprehensive Clinical Trials Center of Metropolitan Hospital, specializing in lung and breast cancer, cancer genetics, and immunotherapy. With a certified clinical trials team, she has coordinated numerous national and international clinical studies. Her main field of interest is thoracic oncology, bridging translational research, biomarker discovery, and clinical validation of novel therapies. She is PI of industry-sponsored and investigator-initiated clinical trials in lung cancer and has led her institution as partner in successful EU-funded, international research projects (TRANSCAN-2011, I3LUNG HORIZON-2020). She is actively involved in lung cancer advocacy, is founding member of the first lung cancer support non-profit organization, and co-founder of the first lung cancer screening program in Greece. She also held an Associate Professorship at the Dept of Health Sciences, West Attica University, teaching combination therapies in oncology (2004-2009).

She is an active member of the Hellenic Cooperative Oncology Group (HeCOG), the largest clinical research group in Greece, Coordinator of the Lung Cancer Working Group since 2014, and elected Scientific Committee Chair of HeCOG since 2021.

She is an active member of ESMO, ASCO, IASLC, MASCC, AACR, EUSOMA, and a founding board member of Mediterranean Multidisciplinary Oncology Forum (MMOF). She has served as an ESMO officer including National Representative for Greece and member of the ESMO Young Oncologists Steering Committee (2003-2007), member of the Medical-Oncology-Status-in-Europe (MOSES) Working Group (2003-2009), and the ESMO Women for Oncology (W4O) Committee. She is co-author of both 2006 and 2008 MOSES reports, the results of which supported ESMO’s efforts for the recognition of medical oncology specialty in Europe, in 2011. She also co-authored the recent ESMO Expert Consensus Survivorship Statements (2022). 

She is founding member of W4O-Hellas, actively involved in raising public awareness on cancer, supporting women oncology patients in Greece, advocating for gender issues, and promoting gender balance, diversity, and equity in oncology. She has been an Extended member of the ESMO W4O Committee since 2015 and a Core Committee member since 2020, co-author in gender-related projects, coordinator, and leading author of the recent ESMO W4O survey (2023). Dr Linardou is currently Chair of the ESMO Women for Oncology Committee and a member of the ESMO Council.

Dr Linardou has been invited Faculty Speaker and Scientific Committee Member at numerous national and international oncology conferences, including ELCC 2022, 2023, World Congress in Lung Cancer (IASLC-WCLC 2019, 2022, 2023), authored many peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and serves as Associate Editor at Frontiers in Oncology and Guest Editor in Cancers.

She lives in Athens, Greece, with her husband and teenage son.