Matti Aapro, MD

Immediate Past-President, European Cancer Organisation (ECO)

Matti Aapro is member of the Board of Directors of the Genolier Cancer Center, Genolier, Switzerland and Immediate Past-President of the European Cancer Organisation.

He received his medical degree from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Switzerland and was a fellow at the Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson, Arizona, USA. He was the founding chair of the Medical and Radiation Therapy Department at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan.

Dr. Aapro is presently Executive Board member of the European School of Oncology (ESO). He leads the Sharing Progress in Cancer Care (SPCC) not-for-profit association. He serves the International Society for Geriatric Oncology (SIOG) as Executive Board Member. He is past-President of the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC). He is President of Honour of the French-speaking Society for Supportive Care (AFSOS), as well as Advisor to the Japanese Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (JASCC). He has been member of the Board of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and of the Board of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO).

Dr. Aapro chaired the scientific and organizing committees of UICC’s (International Union against Cancer) World Cancer Congress of 2008 in Geneva, and 2010 in Shenzhen (China). He is a member of the ESMO Faculty and chaired the ESMO 2018 Supportive/Palliative Care track. Dr. Aapro is Honorary Editor of Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology, and editor of the Journal of Cancer Policy as well as Associate Editor for the geriatric section of the Oncologist. He is also founding editor of the Journal of Geriatric Oncology.  He is past Associate Editor for Annals of Oncology, continuing on its editorial board, and member of several other editorial boards including CancerWorld. He has authored more than 350 publications and his major interests are new drug development, breast cancer, cancer in the elderly, and supportive care.

Dr. Aapro is Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Tampere (2013) and Honorary Member of the Russian Society for Clinical Oncology (RUSSCO)(2016). He has received the 2010 Acta Oncologica Award, the 2012 ASCO B.J. Kennedy prize and the MASCC Distinguished Services Award (2016).

Updated: January 2021