Fatima Cardoso, MD
The European School of Oncology (ESO), together with the Advanced Breast Cancer Global Alliance, bestowed the 2019 Advanced Breast Cancer Award upon Professor Fatima Cardoso, MD, Director of the Breast Unit of the Champalimaud Clinical Centre in Lisbon, “in recognition of her foresight in understanding the importance of advanced breast cancer and for launching a Global Alliance against it.” Professor Larry Norton, Medical Director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York, presented Dr. Cardoso with the award at the start of the Advanced Breast Cancer Fifth International Consensus Conference (ABC5) in Lisbon.
Recognizing that advanced breast cancer was a disease that was often neglected in favor of finding new treatments for early breast cancer, Dr. Cardoso was instrumental in establishing the biennial ABC conferences, the first of which took place in 2011 in Lisbon. In 2016, she launched the ABC Global Alliance in Paris to continue the work of the conferences. Since then, membership has grown; currently there are 177 members (scientific institutions, patient advocacy organizations, individuals, and companies) in 84 countries around the world. In 2020, it will move from being an ESO initiative to becoming an independent organization, with ESO remaining an important member.
The Alliance’s mission is to improve and extend the lives of women and men living with advanced breast cancer in all countries worldwide and to strive for a cure and to raise awareness of advanced breast cancer and lobby worldwide for the improvement of the lives of patients with this type of cancer. ■
