Our organization is based on interactions between all entities composing the network: investigators, industries, patients, scientists.
We are all “working together” to improve patient outcomes!
The role of the Operational Team is to manage the day-to-day activities. It is composed by a project manager, an administrative assitant and a medical fellow.
The General Assembly has the responsibility of strategic decisions and is composed of one representative per Oncodistinct center.
The Administrative Board is composed of five physicians elected by the General Assembly and implements the decisions of the General Assembly.
The driving force of the Oncodistinct Network is firmly its Investigators’ Think Tank. It is the forum for scientific discussions, ideas and strategies which brings innovative clinical research projects. The think tank is composed by a large panel of experts in cancer care (investigators, scientists…) involved in drug development.
Jean-Luc CANON is Medical Oncologist and head of the Cancer Center at the Grand Hôpital de Charleroi in Charleroi, Belgium.
His mean topics of interest are breast Cancer, translationnel research and development of new drug.
He is member of several national and international scientific societies (ASCO, EORTC, ESMO, Unicancer).
He is the author or co-author about 250 articles or abstracts in international journals.
Jean-Luc.canon@ghdc.be
Charleroi- Belgium
Caroline Duhem is Director of the Kriibszentrum, CHL, Luxembourg . She earned her medical degrees and oncology qualifications at UCL.
She is member of the Société Luxembourgeoise d’Oncologie (SLO ), SLO delegated member in Breast International Group (BIG), member of the Belgian Society of Medical Oncology (BSMO), board member of the Société Belge de Sénologie (SBS-BVS), member of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), member of the Oncodistinct Network .
In parallel to her clinical and scientific activities, she is actively implicated in creation and development of supportive structures dedicated to patients quality of life: Integrative oncology for breast cancer patients, prehabilitation and rehabilitation programs at national level, Oncofertility national network, Association des Groupes sportifs oncologiques or ALGSO.
Jon Amund Kyte has combined expertise as clinical oncologist and immunotherapy researcher, and is Head of the Department for Experimental Cancer Therapy, and a Research Group Leader at Department for Cancer Immunology, Oslo University Hospital. The Department for Experimental Cancer Therapy includes the largest Early Phase Trial Unit in Norway, as well as a Clinical Trial Office and Study Nurse Unit, and currently conducts >50 clinical trials in oncology. Dr. Kyte has initiated three ongoing trials, ALICE, REPORT and ICON, combining immunological checkpoint inhibitors with chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The Kyte research group includes two researchers, four post-doc fellows, three PhD-students and four research technicians. The group conducts translational research based on material form the above mentioned trials, aimed at personalised cancer immunotherapy. Further, the group develops tumor-targeting chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) for T cell therapy against solid cancers, as well as strategies designed to make the CAR T cells resistant to immune suppression.
Demetris Papamichael is Director of Medical Oncology at the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Centre in Nicosia, a post he has held since 1999. He is also an Assistant Professor at St. George’s Medical School, University of London at the University of Nicosia Campus. He obtained his medical degree from Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, University of London in 1988. Dr Papamichael trained in internal medicine and obtained his Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians (MRCP) in 1992 – he became a Fellow 10 years later. His training in Medical Oncology took place at the Royal Marsden and St Bartholomew’s Hospitals in London. Dr Papamichael is an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Merit Award winner. He has participated in a number of industry sponsored studies as well as clinical trials coordinated by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer and the UK Medical Research Council/National Cancer Research Institute.
Dr Papamichael’s main clinical interests include gastrointestinal cancer, and cancer in the elderly. He has published his work in a number of peer-reviewed international journals. He is a member of ASCO, the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), and the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG). Recently he headed a Task Force responsible for developing recommendations for the management of colorectal cancer in the elderly on behalf of SIOG. He is a member of the ESMO metastatic colorectal cancer guidelines committee, the ESMO GI faculty and co-chairman of an ESMO-SIOG working group.
demetris.papamichael@bococ.org.cy Nicosia – Cyprus
Dr Jacques MEDIONI, MD, PhD, is university senior lecturer and hospital practioner at the Paris Cite University and Georges Pompidou European Hospital (HEGP) in Paris, France.
He is board certified in medical oncology and clinical pharmacology and as such, he is the medical director of the breast cancer center of the hospital group Cochin, Necker and HEGP and is head of the phase 1-2 Clinical Trials unit (Center of Early Clinical Trials in Cancer). He is involved in early drug development as principal investigator more than 30 early phase clinical trials notably first in Man trials, in targeted therapies and immuno-oncology.
As a scientist, he is a teacher-researcher of INSERM U 11447 (Personalized medicine, pharmacogenomics, and therapeutic optimization) and is involved in clinical pharmacology and surrogate markers of efficacy and toxicity.
Dr Jacques Medioni is member of ESMO, ASCO and AACR. He is an expert for French National Drug Safety Agency (ANSM, Agence Nationale de Securite du Medicament, French FDA).
He has contributed to over 80 peer-reviewed publications, including New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research or Cancer Discovery. He was trained at the former Paris-Descartes Medical School in Paris, France.).
Philippe Barthélémy is medical oncologist in the Department of medical oncology at the University hospital of Strasbourg and the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Strasbourg in France.
Doctor Philippe Barthélémy was born in Luxembourg and did his internship at the University hospital of Strasbourg, France. He obtained his degree of doctor of medicine in 2009 and his thesis of sciences in molecular biology in 2016 at the University of Strasbourg. During his specialization in medical oncology, he also followed trainings in the clinical development of new anticancer drugs at the Jules Bordet Institute in Brussels (under the supervision of Professor Ahmad Awada). He has an important clinical activity in the treatment of solid tumors and in particular genitourinary cancers.
He co-leads the early drug development unit of the “Institut de cancérologie strasbourg europe “. Furthermore he’s head of the molecular tumor board in Strasbourg. Dr Barthélémy is ESMO member, French GETUG group and Unicancer Breast cancer intergroup member.
philippe.barthelemy@chru-strasbourg.fr Strasbourg, France
Francois Duhoux, MD, PhD, is a medical oncologist at the King Albert II Cancer Institute of Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc in Brussels, Belgium. He focuses on breast cancer and early drug development. He holds a degree in oncogenetics and is an internal consultant in the Center for Human Genetics. He is an Assistant Professor at Université catholique de Louvain and studies novel genetic factors predisposing to breast cancer. He is the president of the Belgian Society of Senology and an active member of AACR, ASCO, BeSHG, BSMO, EORTC and ESMO. He has published over 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
francois.duhoux@uclouvain.be Brussels, Belgium
Prof. Anthony Gonçalves is a medical oncologist at the Comprehensive Cancer Center Institute Paoli-Calmettes (IPC), Marseille, France. Head of the Department of Medical Oncology, he is leading the metastatic breast cancer program. At IPC, he is also co-chairing the early phase trial unit, in charge of developing innovative medical therapeutics for solid tumor patients.
Since 2013, he is Professor of Oncology at the Medical School of La Timone, Marseille, Aix-Marseille University. He is an active member of ESMO and ASCO. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Unicancer Breast Cancer Group. Prof. Gonçalves has published more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals in the domain of basic, translational and clinical oncology.
goncalvesa@ipc.unicancer.fr Institut Paoli-Calmettes – Marseille – France
Arafat Tfayli is a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Beirut, Lebanon. He received his medical degree from the American University of Beirut in 1995 and completed his Internal Medicine training at State University of New York at Stony Brook University Hospital and his Hematology/Oncology training at the Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He is also the Director of research at the Naek K Basile Cancer Institute, AUB.
Dr. Tfayli has participated in multiple investigator-initiated trials as well as cooperative group and pharmaceutically-sponsored studies. His main areas of interest are lung and breast cancer. He is a reviewer for several international scientific journals and a member of the Editorial Board of others.
He has authored over 90 peer-reviewed scientific papers and has participated in drafting cancer treatment guidelines in Lebanon. He is the recipient of multiple awards including several teaching and patient satisfaction awards.
Nuria Kotecki is a medical oncologist graduated from Lille 2 University of Health and Law in 2014 and currently working at Jules Bordet Institute, in Brussels. During her internship, she has been trained in the clinical development of new cancer drugs at the Jules Bordet Institut. Her main fields of activity and research interests are breast cancer and development of innovative medical therapeutics for solid tumor patients. She has participated in several clinical trials from phase I to later phases. Dr Nuria Kotecki is a member of different scientific organisations including ASCO, ESMO and AACR. She has authored and co-authored articles in national and international papers as well as many abstracts in congress.
nuria.kotecki@bordet.be Brussels, Belgium
Ali Shamseddine, MD, FRCP is a Professor of Medicine in Oncology, Head of the Department of Hematology- Oncology, Director of the data management and clinical research unit, and the Tumor registry at the Naef Basile Cancer center in the American University of Beirut Medical Center. His research focuses on Epidemiology, Gastrointestinal and Urology cancers. He has over 180 articles in scientific journals and serves as a reviewer for many journals. Dr. Shamseddine lectured and chaired national and regional medical sessions. He was the past Chairman of the Hospital Committee on Cancer at AUBMC, and the past President of the Lebanese Society of Hematology.
as04@aub.edu.lb Beirut – Lebanon
Giuseppe Curigliano, MD, PhD, is the Head of the Division of Early Drug Development at European Institute of Oncology, and Associate Professor of Medical Oncology and University of Milano, Italy. He is a clinician and researcher specializing in early drug development for patients with solid tumors with a special commitment on breast cancer. He is also involved in translational research related to immunotherapy, precision medicine, and biomarkers identification. He is member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG) and of the Breast International Group (BIG) Immune Task Force. He is founding member of/and scientific chair for the International Cardio-Oncology Society (ICOS). Dr Curigliano is the Chair of the ESMO Nomination Committee. He served as the scientific chair of the IMPAKT-ESMO meeting that was held in Brussels in 2014 and as “Metastatic breast cancer track chair” of the ESMO 2014 meeting in Madrid. He is an ESMO Faculty Member since 2001 for breast cancer and served on the Program Scientific Committee of the St Gallen Conference since 2011, and as Scientific Chair in St Gallen 2017. He served in the Scientific Committee for ESMO Immuno-Oncology Congress 2017, 2018 and ESMO Asia 2017 and 2018. He served as the Scientific Chair for St Gallen 2019, ESMO Asia 2018 and ESMO Breast Congress 2019. He has contributed to over 300 peer-reviewed publications and almost 20 book chapters. He also serves on the European School of Oncology (ESO) faculty committee.
He has been appointed as Editor of Annals of Oncology for the period 2014-2020, and serves as Co-Editor in Chief of The Breast, Co-Editor in Chief of Cancer Treatment Reviews, Associate Editor of European Journal of Cancer and editor of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. He has been awarded with the first ESO Umberto Veronesi Award in Vienna in 2017 and with the Fellowship of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences in Paris in 2017.
giuseppe.curigliano@ieo.it Milano – Italy
Adda BOUNEDJAR is Chairman of Medical Oncology Department CHU Frantz Fanon BLIDA ALGERIA.He is Professor of Medical Oncology at Blida 1 University . He is President of Algerian Society of Training and Research in Oncology (SAFRO) And Vice president of Arab Medical Association Against Cancer (AMAAC).
He is member in MENA-NCCN steering committee and in ASCO Clinical Practice Guideline Advisory and he is also member of several international research group and scientific societies ( ACHOG, ICRG, saint paul,AMCI,BGICC,ASCO,ESMO…).he published some pubications in international journals.
Blida- Algeria
Tormod Kyrre Guren (MD, PhD) is Specialist in Medical Oncology and Radiation Therapy in Oslo, Norway. Since 2010, Dr. Guren works as a Senior Consultant at the Clinical Trial Unit, Department of Oncology, Oslo University Hospital/Oslo Comprehensive Cancer Centre.
His clinical practice is mainly focused on treatment of cancer patients in early clinical trials, and he has more than 15 years of experience as principal investigator. As an associated investigator at the K.G. Jebsen Colorectal Cancer Research Centre, Dr. Guren is involved in several translational research projects on lower gastrointestinal cancers. He serves as a member of The Norwegian Board of Medical Experts for Patients with Life Threatening Diseases and he is a member of ESMO and ASCO.
uxtour@ous-hf.no Oslo – Norway
Stephane Holbrechts is head of Oncology – Hematology – Palliative Care department and coordinator of the cancer care program at the university hospital Ambroise Pare (HAP) Mons Belgium. He is internship supervisor in oncology.
Mostly active as clinician, he is particularly involved in the treatment of digestive and lung cancer, holder of a European Interuniversity certificate in thoracic oncology. As researcher, he has a ten years experience as principal investigator of numerous clinical trials and is active in academic and fundamental research notably by cooperating with UMHAP (Clinical Research Center of HAP and Mons University) and ELCWP (European Lung Cancer Working Party). He is member of several scientific societies (ASCO, BSMO, BGDO).
stephane.holbrechts@hap.be Hopital Universitaire Ambroise Paré – Mons – Belgium
Prof Francesco Sclafani, MD PhD is a Consultant Medical Oncologist at the Institut Jules Bordet, and Associate Professor of Medical Oncology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He completed his training at the University of Milan in 2009, and worked at the St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin (2010-2012) and at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London (2012-2018). He was awarded an MD(Res) degree at the University of London in 2018. His focus is clinical and translational research for gastrointestinal cancers, he is investigator of several clinical trials, and has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles. He serves as Co-Chair of the EORTC Colon, Rectum, Anal Cancer Task Force, and previously served as Co-Chair of the ECCO Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care initiative for pancreatic cancer.
Medical oncologist graduated from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1990, training at Brussels Institut Jules Bordet Cancer Center, research fellow Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University. PhD thesis on Hypoxic stress regulated NK cell immune response at University Paris Sud. In 2003 founded the Laboratory of Experimental Cancer Research at Luxembourg Institute of Health. Clinical position Staff Oncologist at Centre Hospitalier in Luxembourg where he heads the Oncology Platform. Clinical work lung cancer and neurooncology. Labwork on cell death mechanisms in hematology, immunooncology and personalized medicine. President of Luxembourg National Institute of Cancer, Luxembourg Society of Oncology and MSF Luxembourg. CAT delegate at EMA.
berchem.guy@chl.lu Luxembourg
Dr Carlos GOMEZ-ROCA, MD, is tenure-track and full-time cancer specialist at the Institut Universitaire du Cancer de Toulouse (IUCT), France. As a medical oncologist, he contributes toward potential therapeutic treatments for cancer, leading as principal investigator or co-investigator more than 30 early phase clinical trials, especially in precision medicine and immune-oncology. As a scientist, his main research interest translational research interest is the immune cross-talk between lesions in metastatic disease and biomarkers of response and toxicity. Dr Gomez-Roca is Faculty at the cancer research committee at ESMO, and member of ASCO and AACR. He has contributed to over 40 peer-reviewed publications, including in JCO, Lancet Oncology and Clinical Cancer Research. His education includes being trained as internal medicine specialist (University of Buenos Aires) and medical oncology (Paris Medical School).
gomez-roca.carlos@iuct-oncopole.fr Rouen – France
Philippe Cassier is a medical oncologist, head of the phase 1 unit at Centre Léon Bérard, in Lyon, France. His main interest is in experimental therapy and drug development, with a particular focus on precision oncology and gastrointestinal cancers, in particular pancreatic cancer. He has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Massimo Di Nicola is Head of the Immunotherapy and Anticancer Innovative Therapeutics Unit at Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milan, Italy. He has been involved throughout his career in both clinical and pre-clinical research programs in onco-hematology, thus building from the beginning of his scientific background an experience in the field of translational medicine. He also takes an active part in the development of new therapeutic strategies (i.e., high-dose chemotherapy, vaccination with dendritic cells, molecular-targeted therapies) with some important achievements for the improvement of anticancer cure. Dr. Di Nicola is member of several international scientific societies (ASCO, ASH, ESMO, NIBIT). He published 10 book chapters and 110 scientific publications in international journals.
massimo.dinicola@istitutotumori.mi.it Milan, Italy
Jean-Pierre Delord is Professor in Medical Oncology at the Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France.
Pr Delord’s research interest focus on the biology of Ovarian, Head and Neck cancer, Pharmacology of anticancer drugs, and the relationship of the tumour micro-environment and malignant cells, and investigations of clinical applications in the field of pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and phase I trials. He is also involved in pre-clinical programs of development of new compounds from basic research to early phases.
He is participating to many scientific boards of pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies, specially during pre-clinical phases of development. He is a national expert of the Minister of Research and Industry.
Pr Delord is an active/board member or expert of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and has served as member of the Scientific Committee of the PAMM group.
Pr Delord has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and over 300 abstracts in congress.
delord.jean-pierre@iuct-oncopole.fr Toulouse – France
Doctor Alain HENDLISZ is a gastroenterologist. He obtained his MD (Docteur en Médecine, Chirurgie et Accouchements) at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1988 and his specialization in gastroenterology in 1993. From October 1993 to September 2002, he worked at the Gastroenterology Unit (Prof. Harry Bleiberg) and at the Oncology Unit (Prof. Martine Piccart) of the Jules Bordet Institute-Brussels. During 2002, he visited the Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton, England at the Digestive Oncology department (Prof. Cunningham) as a clinical fellow supported by a grant of “Les Amis de l’Institut Bordet”. Since 2002, he is the Head of the Gastro-Enterology Unit, Medical Oncology Clinic at the Jules Bordet Institute, Anti-Cancer Center – Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) – Brussels – Belgium.
He is founding and currently member of the Board of the BGDO (Belgian Group for Digestive Oncology). He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), the Société Royale Belge de Gastro-entérologie (SRBG) and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC).
Dr Alain HENDLISZ is also member of the editorial committee of several scientific journals including Current Opinion in Oncology. He published 89 peer-reviewed papers in international journals and chapters of books (35 as first or last author). He is involved as principal investigator or co-investigator in numerous national and international clinical studies. In 2015, Dr Hendlisz defended his PhD thesis entitled “Multimodality imaging for treatment response prediction in colorectal cancer”, and he is now Maître de Conférences at Université Libre de Bruxelles.
alain.hendlisz@bordet.be Brussels – Belgium
Head of department of medical oncology and member of the directory board of the oncology center, Institut Roi Albert II, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels Belgium.
Training : Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore USA (Fellow in Medical Oncology 1998-2000) and Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium (MD: 1993; PhD: 2001).
Main interests: Head and Neck cancer, translational research, and early clinical trials (phase 1).
Publications: more than one hundred and fifty papers reporting on clinical trials and translational research
Editor: Section Editor (Head and neck cancer), European Journal of Cancer
jean-pascal.machiels@uclouvain.be Brussels, Belgium
Donatienne Taylor is a medical oncologist. She graduated from UCLouvain and is currently working as a full time clinician in CHU UCL Namur, Sainte Elisabeth, Belgium. She has a special interest in breast cancer clinical research and is PI for several studies in that field. she is a member of the EORTC breast cancer trial group, ESMO and BSMO.
Bassam Janji obtained a PhD in Oncology from the University Paris-Saclay (France) with an honor degree. After awarding him with a highly competitive Marie Curie Research grant from the EU, he began his academic career at “Institut Curie” in Paris. In 2004, he moved to Luxembourg and joined the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) as a researcher. In 2007, Dr Janji joined the laboratory of Experimental Cancer Research, at the department of Oncology. After obtaining his Habilitation to lead Research from the University of Paris-Saclay in 2011, he was promoted as senior researcher and appointed in 2015 as Deputy Head of the laboratory of Experimental Cancer Research. In 2019, he was nominated head of Tumor Immunotherapy and Microenvironment (TIME) group in the Department of Cancer Research at LIH. Dr Janji served as
Executive Editor of Journal of Cellular Biochemistry and expert for EU research and different research organizations (FWO, FNRS, KWF,…). He is a member of several international scientific societies (American Association for Cancer Research AACR; Association for Cancer Immunotherapy CIMT; European Academy of Tumor Immunology EATI). Dr Janji published more than 75 scientific publications with high citation score, 10 book chapters and 3 patents.
Ahmad Awada is Head of the Oncology Medicine Department at Institute Chirec Delta, Brussels, Belgium. As a clinician, Pr. Awada has an important clinical activity in the treatment of solid tumors, in particular breast cancer. He also takes an active part in the development of new drugs (cytotoxics, molecular-targeted therapies, immunotherapy), some of which are widely used. Pr. Awada is also a member of several international scientific societies (ASCO, EEORTC, ESMO). He published more than 290 scientific publications and 32 book chapters.
Brussels – Belgium
Florian Clatot is a French Medical Oncologist working in the Henri Becquerel Cancer Centre in Rouen, France. His clinical activity as well as his translational research are focused on breast cancer and head and neck cancers. Dr Clatot is involved in several clinical studies as investigator or PI. Dr Clatot is an active member of several national or international scientific societies (GORTEC, EORTC, Unicancer).
florian.clatot@chb.unicancer.fr Rouen – France
Elena Garralda MD MSc, currently the Director at the Early Drug Development Unit at VHIO, Barcelona. Clinical Investigator and Director of the Early Drug Development Unit (UITM) since 2017. Mainly focused on proof-of-concept and proof-of-mechanism trials with targeted therapies with special emphasis on those in cell signaling, cancer stem cells, and immuno-oncology as well as epigenetics. First-in-human studies of targeted therapies, rational combinations of targeted therapies, biomarker-driven trials, and trials in molecularly selected populations. Linking clinical research at VHIO’s Research Unit for Molecular Therapy of Cancer (UITM – CaixaResearch) with the different areas of investigation carried out at our Institute such as the molecular analysis of patients’ tumors and molecular prescreening, as well as developing novel diagnostic tests (e.g. circulating DNA; Nanostring) with marketable pathways to select the best anti-cancer therapy or drug-drug combinations – covering some of the most promising targets in immune checkpoints and cytokines -matched to the aberrations of individual tumors. Converging immuno-oncology and genomics to further advance precision medicine against cancer, and aim at expanding research in epigenetics.
Philippe Aftimos, MD is a medical oncologist and the senior research physician at the Clinical Pharmacology Unit of Institut Jules Bordet in Brussels since October 2012.
Dr Aftimos has a special interest in breast cancer, new drug development and precision medicine. At Institut Jules Bordet, he supervises the phase I clinical trials program. He is also responsible for the coordination of the institutional Sequencing Tumor Board. He is co-PI of AURORA (Aiming to Understand the Molecular Aberrations of Metastatic Breast Cancer), a large European molecular screening program launched by the Breast International Group. He is also co-PI of the soon to be launched Belgian Society of Medical Oncology precision medicine program.
philippe.aftimos@bordet.be Brussels – Belgium
Elda Tagliabue is a Ph.D. currently working at Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori of Milan. She is the Head of Molecular Targeting Unit in the Department of Research. Throughout her career, she has been involved in clinical and preclinical research on the function of HER2 in breast cancer tumorigenesis, progression, and response to therapy. Her expertise in translational research has contributed significantly to demonstrate that trastuzumab mediates antibody dependent cell cytotoxicity in HER2-positive breast carcinoma patients. Her team identified a new molecular classifier that predicts the benefit of trastuzumab and recently demonstrated a relationship between host gut microbiota and the response to anti-HER2 treatment. This work has produced more than 240 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Alejandro Piris, PhD. Head of the Scientific Management Department at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) in Barcelona (Spain). My tasks at VHIO include: writing, coordination and management of scientific proposals; monitoring and evaluation of existing programs; strategic decisions on research activities; identification of competitive research funds/ opportunities and international research consortia. I am coordinator of the VHIO Internal Scientific Committee and evaluator of national/ international research Calls. I have completed a Masters in Management of R, D & I in Health Sciences. Previously I worked as Research Projects Manager in Translational Cancer Drugs Pharma (biotech company) and as senior consultant in a strategic consultancy company, Mensor (Research Department).
In terms of academic training: I graduated in Veterinary Science (Complutense University of Madrid) and hold a PhD cum laude in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Pasteur Institute and Denis Diderot University, Paris). I have also completed a post-doctoral stay (Juan de la Cierva Program) at the National Center for Biotechnology (Madrid), focused on the design of new viral vaccines. I am first author (4) or co-author in 11 scientific publications and equal number of communications in international congresses.
My personal interest is cancer research at all levels, but with special focus in Personalized Medicine and Scientific Management.
To be more efficient and to work on different topics, each member can choose to join one or more working group(s) according to his/her expertise. The aim of the working groups is to share thoughts and ideas and develop together future innovative and collaborative studies for the Network.
Each member can join one or more working groups aligned with their expertise.
These groups aim to share ideas, foster collaboration, and develop innovative, network‑driven studies. “Out‑of‑the‑box” projects are strongly encouraged, promoting original trial designs, new treatment strategies, and emerging high‑impact topics.
Working groups meet 2–3 times per year to address unmet needs, explore collaborations, and design new research projects.
Key outcomes are shared and discussed at the biannual Oncodistinct meetings to ensure alignment and collective progress across the network.
Backed by dedicated operational team, the network helps turn ideas into reality by supporting every stage of project development.
Meet the industry
The aim of the “Meet the Industry” sessions is to bring together investigators and industry partners to general fruitful win-win collaborations.
Oncodistinct offers an annual competitive grant of €20,000 to support, accelerate, or expand promising clinical research projects within the network.
Selected projects are presented to the General Assembly and undergo a structured evaluation process combining expert peer review and collective voting. This ensures the selection of high‑impact, network‑driven initiatives.
Each project is assessed by five designated reviewers, contributing to 80% of the final score, while General Assembly participants account for the remaining 20%.
Through this funding scheme, Oncodistinct aims to foster innovation and empower collaborative research with meaningful clinical impact.
