Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, MD, Oral History Interview, January 23, 2013
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Description
Major Topics Covered:
- The World Summit Against Cancer
- The Breast Cancer Research Group
- Breast cancer treatments and service: evolution at MD Anderson
Identifier
HortobagyiGN_03_20130123
Publication Date
1-23-2013
Publisher
The Historical Resources Center, Research Medical Library, The University of Texas Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Topics Covered
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas System. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute at Houston, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Recommended Citation
Hortobagyi, Gabriel N. MD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, MD, Oral History Interview, January 23, 2013" (2013). Interview Sessions. 213.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewsessions/213
Conditions Governing Access
Open
About the Interview
About the Interview Subject:
Gabriel Hortobagyi, M.D. (b. summer 1946, Sarvoc, Hungary) came to MD Anderson in 1974 as a Fellow in the Department of Developmental Therapeutics. He joined the faculty of the Breast Medical Service in 1976. Dr. Hortobagyi’s research has focused on multimodality and adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatments for breast cancer, as well as personalized therapies and gene therapy. He served as chair of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology until 2012. He is a professor in that department and heads the Breast Cancer Research Program.
Original Interview Profile #29: Gabriel Hortobagyi, M.D.
Submitted by: Tacey A. Rosolowski, Ph.D.
Date revised: 3 July 2014
This interview of Gabriel Hortobagyi, M.D. (b. summer 1946, Sarvoc, Hungary), a leader in breast medical oncology, is conducted in five sessions (approximately 8 hours 45 minutes total duration) in 2012-2013. Dr. Hortobagyi came to MD Anderson in 1974 as a Fellow in the Department of Developmental Therapeutics: he joined the faculty in 1976. He served as chair of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology until 2012. He is currently a professor in that department and holds the Nellie B. Connelly Chair in Breast Cancer. He also heads the Breast Cancer Research Program. The interview sessions take place in Dr. Hortobagyi’s office in the Department of Breast Medical Oncology in the Cancer Prevention Building on the Main Campus of MD Anderson. Tacey A. Rosolowski, Ph.D. is the interviewer.
Born in Hungary, Dr. Hortobagyi’s family escaped as refugees to Bogota, where Dr. Hortobagyi was educated. He received the equivalent of the B.S. in 1963 from the Colegio Helvetia in Bogota, and his M.D. in 1970 from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota. He served as a Rotating Intern at the Hospital San Juan de Dios, Bogota (69-70). He decided to continue his education in the United States, and secured a position as a Clinical Resident in Internal Med at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio (‘71 – ’74). In 1974, he came to MD Anderson for his Fellowship in Developmental Therapeutics, continuing with a Clinical Fellowship in Medical Oncology from ‘75-’76. He joined the faculty as a Faculty Associate in the Breast Medical Servie in 1977, advancing to Assistant Professor in ’79. He became full professor in 1985. Dr. Hortobagyi has been instrumental in building the Breast Medical Oncology service at MD Anderson since his arrival. He became Chief of the Section in 1984 and assumed the role of Department Chair in 1992, when the section was restructured as a Department under Dr. Charles LeMaistre. He actively built the Breast Cancer Research Group at MD Anderson and has been active in Breast Cancer and Breast Medical Oncology groups worldwide. His research has influenced Standards of Care in breast cancer treatments: he initiated regimen that used anthracycline as backbone of adjuvant chemotherapy (20 yrs later became standard of care for primary breast cancer) and he was the first to prove the value of paclitaxel for front line and adjuvant therapy. He developed combination drug strategy for preoperative chemotherapy followed by surgery and radiation, now considered standard for most primary breast cancers. He developed a neoadjuvant modality allowed surgery for many inoperable tumors and advanced multidisciplinary research efforts to design personalized therapies and clinical trials to test gene therapy. In 2013 Dr. Hortobagyi received the Jill Rose Award for outstanding research excellence from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Bob Pinedo Cancer Care Prize from the Society for Translational Oncology in 2011. In 2004 he was the first recipient of the Umberto Veronese Award for the Future Fight Against Breast Cancer. He is a Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honor, France (received 2001). In 2009 he received the John Mendelsohn Lifetime Achievement Award from MD Anderson.
In this interview, Dr. Hortobagyi gives an overview of his career and commitments. He sketches his childhood experiences as a refugee and his formative medical training in Bogota. He details the many dimensions of his research. (His discussion covers the ongoing debates about clinical trials that were taking place at MD Anderson into the eighties.) He also speaks at length about what was required to establish multi-disciplinary and patient centered breast cancer service at the institution, as well as tracing the evolution of Breast Medical Oncology. Dr. Hortobagyi comments on leadership both within the institution and in the field of Breast Medical Oncology as an international endeavor. Dr. Hortobagyi sets events in an historical perspective, and this interview consequently includes many snapshots of the development of oncology, of research, of the design of clinical trials, as well as vignettes of leadership, mentoring, and MD Anderson at many phases of its evolution.