The esteemed ESMO Award was established in 1985 to recognise an ESMO member who has made an outstanding contribution to the development of medical oncology by promoting it as a speciality within the European and/or international community
2017 – Miguel Martin, Spain
The ESMO Award was presented to Miguel Martin during the ESMO 2017 Congress
Miguel Martin is President of the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM), Professor of Medicine at the Complutense University, and head of the Medical Oncology Service at the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañon, in Madrid. Since 2001, he has served on the Board of Directors and the Scientific Steering Committee of the Translational Research in Oncology (TRIO) group, an international not-for-profit clinical research organisation involving 45 different countries.
In 1995, Martin created GEICAM (the Spanish Group for Breast Cancer Research), a network of more than 180 Spanish institutions, which has carried out upwards of 130 clinical, translational and epidemiological studies in the field of breast cancer.
It is recognition not only of my personal contribution to research in medical oncology and breast cancer, but also the work of SEOM in general, and the members of GEICAM, in particular. My interpretation is that ESMO is actually awarding our collective work that is often also a collaborative effort with other European and American groups.
Christoph Zielinski, Chair of the ESMO Fellowship and Award Committee, said: “Miguel Martin is an international global leader in widening our biologic understanding of breast cancer. He is recognised for his highly respected and important academic contributions in the field of breast cancer treatment, as well as his design and implementation of an abundance of important clinical trials. His work has deepened our understanding of ways to optimise breast cancer treatment and define new treatment paradigms.”
