Oncologist Near Me: Giuseppe Curigliano
Welcome to OncoDaily‘s special section “Oncologist Near Me” where we introduce prominent oncologists from around the world.
Here, you can get to know the leading cancer specialists in your area, including both personal and professional details that you won’t find in their research articles.
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Giuseppe Curigliano, MD, PhD
Giuseppe Curigliano is a distinguished medical oncologist specializing in breast cancer. He currently serves as the Director of the Early Drug Development Division and co-chairs the Experimental Therapeutics Program at the European Institute of Oncology. He is also a Steering Committee Member of the Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology at the University of Milan. Dr. Curigliano is a member of the Editorial Board for OncoDaily and the President-Elect of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO).
Early Life and Education
Giuseppe Curigliano was born in Canada on May 27, 1968, to parents who had emigrated from southern Italy to escape the severe economic depression following the Second World War. When he was 10 years old, his family decided to return to Italy, a move that was a complete culture shock for him.
As a teenager, Curigliano developed a fascination with languages, including Greek, Occitan, and the Tosk dialect spoken in southern Albania. This passion initially led him to apply to university to study philology because, as he stated in one of his interviews with OncoDaily, he was deeply impressed by the power of words. However, he soon shifted his focus to medicine, reasoning that philology offered limited opportunities to make a meaningful impact on humanity. Once he made the switch, Curigliano knew early on that oncology was his field, as he believed it provided the best platform for conducting research that could truly help people.
Professor Curigliano earned his medical degree and specialization from the Catholic University in Rome, Italy. He later obtained a PhD in Medical Pathophysiology and Clinical Pharmacology from the University of Pisa, working on a project on pharmacogenomics in bladder tumors.
Career
Giuseppe Curigliano: ESMO President Elect 2027 – 2028
On June 12, 2024, ESMO announced that Giuseppe Curigliano was elected as ESMO President-Elect for the term 2027–2028.
On this occasion, Dr. Curigliano stated:
“As ESMO President, my mission will be to overcome current challenges in integrating diverse oncology disciplines through a comprehensive plan focused on education and inclusivity toward global progress in cancer care. ESMO should lead the way in decoding cancer complexity to prevent and cure cancer through science and education, transforming patient and survivor outcomes beyond geographical boundaries.”
Besides being President-Elect Dr. Curigliano serves as Editor-in-Chief of ESMO Open, a peer-reviewed open-access journal dedicated to publishing high-quality medical research and educational content across all oncology disciplines, with a particular focus on innovative clinical and translational cancer research.
Within ESMO, he has held several key roles, including Chair of the ESMO Nomination Committee (2018–2021) and Chair of the ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee (2020–2023). He was also a founding member and scientific Co-Chair of the ESMO Breast Cancer Congress. Dr. Curigliano played a pivotal role in launching the ESMO Living Guidelines and advancing the recognition of the Fellow of ESMO (FESMO). Additionally, he has organized and participated in numerous professional and educational programs for oncologists worldwide.
For the full list of Dr. Curigliano’s positions click here.
Giuseppe Curigliano is the Director of the Early Drug Development Division and Co-Chair of the Experimental Therapeutics Program at the European Institute of Oncology, a comprehensive cancer center in Milan, Italy. He has been a Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Milan since 2021 and serves as a Steering Committee Member of the Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology. Additionally, Dr. Curigliano is a member of the Italian National Health Council, advising the Ministry of Health on cancer policy issues.
From 2017 to 2021, he was an Associate Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Milan. At the European Institute of Oncology, he has led the Division of Early Drug Development since 1999 and previously served as Co-Director of the Division of Medical Oncology until 2014.
He worked as a Visiting Research Scientist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, in 2010 and as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Columbia University Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York, USA, from 1994 to 1997, working with Regina Santella and Isaac Bernard Weinstein, where he gained expertise in preclinical and translational research. Looking back on his time at Columbia University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Curilino says that it was the most valuable experience of his life. Earlier, from 1993 to 1994, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Medical University of South Carolina, USA.
In addition to his academic and research accomplishments, Dr. Curigliano served as a Lieutenant and Chief Medical Officer in the Italian Air Forces from 1996 to 1997.
Honors and Awards
- Tullio Terranova Prize for Clinical Cancer Research (1993)
- Istituto Toniolo Prize for Clinical Cancer Research (1995)
- ESO Umberto Veronesi Award (2017)
- Fellowship of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences (2017)
- Clarivate™ world’s most influential researchers (the highly cited researchers) (2022, 2023)
- The Fellow of ESMO (FESMO) Award (2024)
Research
Giuseppe Curigliano began his research career in 1995 at the Columbia Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York. In 1996, he published his first article, “Immunohistochemical Quantitation of 4-Aminobiphenyl-DNA Adducts and p53 Nuclear Overexpression in T1 Bladder Cancer of Smokers and Nonsmokers.”
Now, he has authored over 670 papers in peer-reviewed journals, with an h-index of 83. He has also contributed numerous book chapters and was identified as Clarivate™’s most influential researcher (the most cited researcher) in 2022 and 2023.
Professor Curigliano serves as the principal investigator and a steering committee member for numerous clinical trials in breast cancer and early development, with a particular focus on innovative targeted compounds and personalized treatment strategies. His translational research centers on biomarkers, personalized therapies, biomarker discovery, the development of targeted agents, and the implementation of personalized medicine.
His team, consisting of 40 members—including medical staff, research nurses, oncology nurses, and medical oncology residents—works across basic sciences, bioinformatics, biotechnologies, and clinical research. Additionally, he leads Phase I-III trials testing targeted agents in breast cancer, as well as large, agnostic national trials exploring the implementation of high-throughput technologies within healthcare systems.
One of the pivotal trials he led is DESTINY-Breast 06, a prospective randomized trial evaluating the activity of trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) in patients with HR-positive, HER2-low, and HER2-ultra-low metastatic breast cancer after one or two lines of previous endocrine therapy. The trial demonstrated that T-DXd provided a statistically significant and clinically meaningful progression-free survival benefit compared to standard chemotherapy in this patient population. As a result, trastuzumab deruxtecan is now a new treatment option for patients with HR-positive, HER2-low, and HER2-ultra-low metastatic breast cancer who have never been treated with chemotherapy.
Curigliano presented the results of this study at ASCO 2024. Reflecting on the moment, he shared in an interview with OncoDaily:
“For me, it was an incredible experience to stand at 7:30 a.m. in front of an audience of 15,000 people. When they told me my abstract was accepted, I was given two options: Sunday at 7:30 a.m. or Tuesday at the end of the meeting. I chose 7:30 a.m., hoping people would attend the session. When I saw the room was fully booked and there was even an overflow outside, Angela Di Michele sent me a WhatsApp message saying, ‘Wow, thanks for bringing all these people here at 7:30 in the morning.’
“When you deliver a presentation like this, your role is to help people understand what the group of co-authors accomplished and what the co-investigators contributed globally. I was simply presenting the data on behalf of everyone who worked on the study. And finally, if you remember, I also made sure to sincerely thank everyone who came so early in the morning to listen to the data.”
Giuseppe Curigliano at ASCO 2024 presenting the resultes of DESTINY-Breast 06 trial. Photo credit to Giuseppe Curigliano/LinkedIn
Dr. Curigliano is passionate about advancing breast cancer treatment through guidelines. From 2019 to 2023, he chaired the Guidelines Committee at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), where he worked on several important guidelines, including ESMO’s first-ever guidelines for treating metastatic breast cancer.
One of his most significant contributions was helping develop the ‘ESMO Living Guidelines,’ an innovative approach that allows for ongoing updates to ensure treatments reflect the latest evidence. His commitment to improving breast cancer care through these guidelines has made a real impact in the field.
Top 10 papers by Giuseppe Curigliano*
- Curigliano G, Burstein HJ, Winer EP, Gnant M, Dubsky P, Loibl S, Colleoni M, Regan MM, Piccart-Gebhart M, Senn HJ, Thürlimann B; St. Gallen International Expert Consensus on the Primary Therapy of Early Breast Cancer 2017; André F, Baselga J, Bergh J, Bonnefoi H, Brucker SY, Cardoso F, Carey L, Ciruelos E, Cuzick J, Denkert C, Di Leo A, Ejlertsen B, Francis P, Galimberti V, Garber J, Gulluoglu B, Goodwin P, Harbeck N, Hayes DF, Huang CS, Huober J, Hussein K, Jassem J, Jiang Z, Karlsson P, Morrow M, Orecchia R, Osborne KC, Pagani O, Partridge AH, Pritchard K, Ro J, Rutgers EJT, Sedlmayer F, Semiglazov V, Shao Z, Smith I, Toi M, Tutt A, Viale G, Watanabe T, Whelan TJ, Xu B. De-escalating and escalating treatments for early-stage breast cancer: the St. Gallen International Expert Consensus Conference on the Primary Therapy of Early Breast Cancer 2017. Ann Oncol. 2017 Aug 1;28(8):1700-1712. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdx308. Erratum in: Ann Oncol. 2018 Oct 1;29(10):2153. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdx806. Erratum in: Ann Oncol. 2019 Jul 1;30(7):1181. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdy537. PMID: 28838210; PMCID: PMC6246241.
- Curigliano G, Cardinale D, Suter T, Plataniotis G, de Azambuja E, Sandri MT, Criscitiello C, Goldhirsch A, Cipolla C, Roila F; ESMO Guidelines Working Group. Cardiovascular toxicity induced by chemotherapy, targeted agents and radiotherapy: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines. Ann Oncol. 2012 Oct;23 Suppl 7:vii155-66. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mds293. PMID: 22997448.
- Curigliano G, Lenihan D, Fradley M, Ganatra S, Barac A, Blaes A, Herrmann J, Porter C, Lyon AR, Lancellotti P, Patel A, DeCara J, Mitchell J, Harrison E, Moslehi J, Witteles R, Calabro MG, Orecchia R, de Azambuja E, Zamorano JL, Krone R, Iakobishvili Z, Carver J, Armenian S, Ky B, Cardinale D, Cipolla CM, Dent S, Jordan K; ESMO Guidelines Committee. Electronic address: [email protected]. Management of cardiac disease in cancer patients throughout oncological treatment: ESMO consensus recommendations. Ann Oncol. 2020 Feb;31(2):171-190. doi: 10.1016/j.annonc.2019.10.023. PMID: 31959335; PMCID: PMC8019325.
- Curigliano G, Cardinale D, Dent S, Criscitiello C, Aseyev O, Lenihan D, Cipolla CM. Cardiotoxicity of anticancer treatments: Epidemiology, detection, and management. CA Cancer J Clin. 2016 Jul;66(4):309-25. doi: 10.3322/caac.21341. Epub 2016 Feb 26. PMID: 26919165.
- Tarantino P, Hamilton E, Tolaney SM, Cortes J, Morganti S, Ferraro E, Marra A, Viale G, Trapani D, Cardoso F, Penault-Llorca F, Viale G, Andrè F, Curigliano G. HER2-Low Breast Cancer: Pathological and Clinical Landscape. J Clin Oncol. 2020 Jun 10;38(17):1951-1962. doi: 10.1200/JCO.19.02488. Epub 2020 Apr 24. PMID: 32330069.
- Belli C, Trapani D, Viale G, D’Amico P, Duso BA, Della Vigna P, Orsi F, Curigliano G. Targeting the microenvironment in solid tumors. Cancer Treat Rev. 2018 Apr;65:22-32. doi: 10.1016/j.ctrv.2018.02.004. Epub 2018 Feb 22. PMID: 29502037.
- Curigliano G, Viale G, Bagnardi V, Fumagalli L, Locatelli M, Rotmensz N, Ghisini R, Colleoni M, Munzone E, Veronesi P, Zurrida S, Nolè F, Goldhirsch A. Clinical relevance of HER2 overexpression/amplification in patients with small tumor size and node-negative breast cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2009 Dec 1;27(34):5693-9. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2009.22.0962. Epub 2009 Nov 2. PMID: 19884553.
- Marra A, Viale G, Curigliano G. Recent advances in triple-negative breast cancer: the immunotherapy era. BMC Med. 2019 May 9;17(1):90. doi: 10.1186/s12916-019-1326-5. PMID: 31068190; PMCID: PMC6507064.
- Curigliano G, Banerjee S, Cervantes A, Garassino MC, Garrido P, Girard N, Haanen J, Jordan K, Lordick F, Machiels JP, Michielin O, Peters S, Tabernero J, Douillard JY, Pentheroudakis G; Panel members. Managing cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: an ESMO multidisciplinary expert consensus. Ann Oncol. 2020 Oct;31(10):1320-1335. doi: 10.1016/j.annonc.2020.07.010. Epub 2020 Jul 31. PMID: 32745693; PMCID: PMC7836806.
- Curigliano G, Cardoso MJ, Poortmans P, Gentilini O, Pravettoni G, Mazzocco K, Houssami N, Pagani O, Senkus E, Cardoso F; editorial board of The Breast. Recommendations for triage, prioritization, and treatment of breast cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Breast. 2020 Aug;52:8-16. doi: 10.1016/j.breast.2020.04.006. Epub 2020 Apr 16. PMID: 32334323; PMCID: PMC7162626.
*Most cited papers, where Giuseppe Curigliano is the first or last author according to Google Scholar
Beyond The White Coat
