EDUCATION
Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO
University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Rugo is director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education and a professor of medicine at University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center Center.
- As an investigator, Dr Rugo was instrumental in the EMBRACA and ABRAZO studies into the efficacy of talazoparib (Talzenna), a PARP inhibitor that the FDA approved in 2018 for patients with HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic breast with germline BRCA mutations.
- She was a key investigator testing atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in the IMpassion130 trial, which led to the FDA’s March 2019 approval of the immunotherapeutic agent in combination with nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) for PD-L1–positive unresectable locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.
- In the realm of supportive care, her work has resulted in approvals for scalp-cooling technology to reduce chemotherapy-induced alopecia and a steroid mouthwash to relieve stomatitis from targeted therapy.
- She is the cochair of the Triple Negative Working Group and the principal investigator for several Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium trials, including a multicenter immunotherapy trial funded by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
- Rugo is a founding member of the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium and serves as an investigator in the UCSF Breast SPORE.
