José Baselga

Abstract

Eminent oncologist who contributed to breast cancer treatments. He was born in Barcelona, Spain, on July 3, 1959, and died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Cerdanya, Spain, on March 21, 2021, aged 61 years. Although a lifelong academic researcher and clinician responsible for pioneering advances in the early stage treatment of breast cancer, José Baselga's final role was in the pharmaceutical industry as AstraZeneca's Executive Vice President for Oncology Research and Development. No longer a hands-on clinician scientist, his last 2 years of life were nonetheless devoted to the topic that had preoccupied him for the previous 40 years—advancing oncology research. “One of his most important achievements had always been to combine great clinical work with great research”, says Javier Cortés, Director of the International Breast Cancer Center in Barcelona, Spain. “He understood the need to work together—the basic research labs with the hospital”, says Cortés. Baselga also believed that patients who were treated in the context of a clinical trial benefited by their involvement. Some of his most influential trials were done while he was based at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York, USA, during his first period there in 1989–94. Larry Norton, medical oncologist and holder of the Norna S Sarofim Chair in Clinical Oncology at MSKCC, got to know him during this time when, as a newly appointed fellow in medical oncology, Baselga was working with physician scientist John Mendelsohn on monoclonal antibodies to growth factor receptors, at the time a still novel molecular targeted therapy. Mendelsohn's laboratory was investigating the use epidermal growth factor receptor antibodies, and the possible benefits of combining them with other commonly used chemotherapies. “Because José was working in the breast cancer area, his attention was attracted to an emerging new molecule, HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2)”, says Norton. This work led to the development of trastuzumab, a monoclonal antibody against HER2. “José was the first author on the very first phase 2 trial of trastuzumab.” Baselga also worked on a cluster of other innovative therapies, including cetuximab, pertuzumab, and everolimus. “He saw the need to base treatment on biology”, says Cortés. “He was one of the key people doing this.” And, as Baselga himself was aware, the nature of his job meant that he was well placed to pursue this endeavour. The success of Baselga's work at MSKCC prompted the offer of a professorial job in his home country at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and the chairmanship of the Department of Medical Oncology at the city's Vall D'Hebron University Hospital. These positions brought him back to the institutions from which he had acquired his first medical degree in 1982 and, 10 years later, his doctoral degree. Having begun his specialist training in Barcelona, Baselga had completed it in the USA at the State University of New York before moving on to the MSKCC fellowship. His subsequent return to Spain lasted some 15 years, during which he revitalised medical oncology at Vall D'Hebron and spent the last 3 years as founding Director of its Institute of Oncology. In 2010 he returned to the USA to spend 2 years as Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School before taking up a similar post at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. During this latter period, he worked again at MSKCC, this time as Physician-in-Chief, where his research included the mechanisms of resistance to anti-oestrogen therapies. “He was always thinking about the future of oncology”, according to Cortés. Baselga's move to AstraZeneca came after he resigned from MSKCC. A 2018 article in The New York Times, written in conjunction with the investigative journalism organisation ProPublica, revealed Baselga's inadequate disclosures of financial conflicts of interest and so precipitated his resignation. Defending himself, Baselga claimed that these were misjudgments rather than acts of dishonesty, but his actions had rendered his MSKCC position untenable. Norton describes Baselga as a man “filled with energy and a sense of purpose and…a deep driving motivation. He didn't allow setbacks to deter him from pressing on.” AstraZeneca recruited him to lead a new research and development unit for oncology, where he led a team that accelerated new science in antibody–drug conjugates, cell therapy, and epigenetics. Cortés describes his old friend as very strict. “You had to work very hard”, he says. “But when he promised you something, he would fight for you to get it. A good boss and a great mentor.” Baselga leaves a wife, Silvia, and children, Alex, Clara, Marc, and Pepe.