Speaker 

Professor Michael Gnant  MD  FACS  FEBS
Full Professor of Surgery, Medical University of Vienna, Austria;  President of the Austrian Breast & Colorectal Cancer Study Group; Co-Chair, St Gallen International Breast Cancer Consensus Panel

Prof Gnant’s research interests include several fields of surgical oncology, in particular breast and pancreatic cancer, immunotherapy, bone-targeted treatment for tumour micrometastases, tumor dormancy quiescence and late relapse, pathway-directed therapies such as mTOR and CDK inhibition and SERDs. He has been the Principal Investigator of many (N>30) clinical trials in these fields.

The author of more than 600 original peer-reviewed papers with an impact factor of 5,100 and an h-index of 90, Prof Gnant has presented over 1,000 lectures at national and international meetings. He is the recipient of multiple awards including the prestigious Claudia von Schilling Prize from the Medical University of Hannover, the Umberto Veronesi Lecture Award of Breast Surgery International, and a Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Prof Gnant holds an honorary MD degree of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China, Honorary Professorships of Tianjin Medical University in Tianjin and Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, and is a Visiting Professor at Jiaotong University in Xi’an, Sichuan University in Chengdu, Dalian University in Dalian, and Nanjing Medical University in Nanjing, China.

Prof Gnant is involved in many scientific societies including ASCO, AACR, ACS, Breast International Group (BIG), EORTC, ESSO, EUSOMA and UICC. He served as an executive board member of BIG, is an independent reviewer and IDMC member for the EORTC, UICC and other international bodies. He is also Editor-in-Chief of BREAST CARE, and editorial board member and reviewer for many top-tier peer reviewed journals including The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Annals of Oncology.

Chair

Professor Bruce Mann
Professor of Surgery, University of Melbourne; Specialist Breast Surgeon

A leader in collaborative enterprise, Prof Mann integrated the breast units of the Royal Melbourne Hospital with the Royal Women’s Hospital and was subsequently appointed Director of Breast Cancer Services bringing the breast unit at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre together with the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Royal Women’s Hospital breast service. A major achievement in the breast tumour stream is the implementation of a Clinical Research and Information Management System; delivering comprehensive and searchable data, routinely collected from all patients treated for early breast cancer.

His clinical interest relates to all those with suspected or proven early breast cancer, the appropriate use of contrast imaging in early breast cancer, and safe de-intensification of treatment for early breast cancer. His research interests focus on optimising the early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

Prof Mann is co-chair of the expert advisory group for the ROSA (Roadmap to Optimising Screening in Australia) project of the Cancer Council of Australia. He is the instigator and Principal Investigator of the PROSPECT trial, investigating the role on MRI in the selective omission of radiotherapy in early breast cancer, and the national PI of the UK-led POSNOC trial of omission of additional axillary treatment in those with limited disease in the sentinel nodes. He led an Australian validation study of the DCISionRT assay in DCIS and is PI of an Australian registry of this assay.