Academic History

Nadia Harbeck, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Conservative Oncology at the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) of Munich, Munich, Germany. She received her medical degree in 1989 at LMU Munich and completed her medical residency at the Women’s Hospital of the Technical University of Munich, Germany, where she also habilitated.

Her current roles include the ESMO director of education, director of the Breast Center, and she holds the chair for conservative oncology at the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich. She is the editor-in-chief of Breast Care and serves on multiple panels of International Consensus Conferences such as Breast Cancer in Young Women (BCY). She is also a member of the expert panel that provides updated evidence-based German Gynecological Oncology Working Group guidelines for breast cancer therapy.

Speaking on personalizing breast cancer therapeutic strategies

Prof. Harbeck’s research focuses center on novel targeted compounds and prognostic and predictive factors in both breast cancer and other solid tumors. She is the principal investigator of numerous clinical trials, developing novel agents and identifying individualized factors with the goal of personalizing treatment options. She leads the personalization through multiple areas including decreasing chemotherapy in LN+ premenopausal women using genomic testing, advancing targeted therapies such as abemaciclib in HR+ disease, and antibody-drug conjugates for HER2-positive cases. She is an award-winning researcher for her clinical translational work, including the 2020 ESMO Lifetime Achievement Award and the German Cancer Award for Clinical Research 2023.  She also has an interest in eHealth and is a co-developer of CANKADO, the digital patient diary.