Dr Pellegrino was born in Nardò (Italy) on the 1st of January 1989. She studied Medicine at the University of Parma and, from 2011 to 2013, did an internship at the Oncology department. It was during this time that she developed a special interest in breast cancer (BC) and molecular medicine. Dr Pellegrino graduated in 2013 with a dissertation titled “HER-2 status and triple negative breast cancer. Biological correlation and prognostic impact”. In 2019, Dr Pellegrino became a Medical Oncologist at the University of Modena. To confirm her interest in BC and translational research, she did further training at the Breast Cancer Unit of Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, USA) under the direction of Prof. Massimo Cristofanilli. During the 4-week traineeship, she improved her knowledge regarding the circulating tumour cells (CTCs) and inflammatory BC. She could follow some international clinical trials, including PALOMA-2 trial and she had the chance to experience a different way of working and to improve her English. Thanks to the ESMO fellowship program, Dr Pellegrino had the chance to work at “Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology” to receive specialized training in translational research in BC through the collaboration of home and host institutes and under the mentorship of Dr Serra. During this period, her efforts were focused on studying the link between the homologous recombination repair pathway deficiency in breast cancer and mechanisms of tumour immune evasion in preclinical and clinical models (Pellegrino B et al, ESMO IO 2018; Pellegrino B et al, ESMO 2019; Pellegrino B et al, ESMO 2021). In June 2021, she joined the ESMO faculty becoming a member of the ESMO Practising Oncologists Working Group.