The webinar aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest advancements in the clinical management of high-grade ovarian cancer, with a focus on incorporating information regarding homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) and BRCA statuses obtained through decentralized, in-house assays. Four experts in the field — one anatomic pathologist, two medical oncologists, and one biologist — will present selected clinical cases to illustrate the integration of in-house HRD and BRCA status assessment into routine clinical practice.
The speakers will discuss the challenges and benefits associated with the transition from a centralized testing system to a decentralized, in-house assessment, in terms of results reporting, management of indeterminate cases, and communication among involved healthcare professionals.
This webinar will aim to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among oncologists, geneticists, pathologists, and molecular biologists, facilitating a holistic approach to the clinical management of the most deadly gynecological cancer in the promising era of personalized treatments for patients with high-grade ovarian cancer.
Speakers
Xavier Matias-Guiu, MD, PhD
Professor of Pathology
University of Barcelona
Xavier Matias-Guiu is a professor of pathology at the University of Barcelona and Lleida and holds the position of chairman of pathology at Hospital Universitari Arnau de Vilanova de Lleida and Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge. He earned his medical degree from the University of Barcelona in 1981, and his doctorate from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1987. Between 1983 and 1986, he trained in Pathology and later became a faculty member at Hospital de Sant Pau from 1988 to 2002. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in research pathology at New England Medical Center-Tufts University.
Matias-Guiu’s research focuses on the pathology and molecular features of endometrial and ovarian carcinomas. He served as the president of the Spanish Society of Pathology (2019-2021) and has been involved with the European Society of Pathology as a Member of the Council (2015-19), chairman of the Education subcommittee (2021-23), and president-elect (2023- ). He served as the president of the International Society of Gynecologic Pathologists (ISGYP) (2021-2023) and is a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) panel for the Classification of Tumours of the Female Genital Tract (2014, 2020). He also contributed to international guidelines in endometrial cancer and the ESMO guidelines on predictive biomarker testing in OC in 2020.
Beatriz Pardo, MD
Medical Oncologist
Institut Català d’ Oncologia (ICO) L’ Hospitalet
Beatriz Pardo graduated from the University of Barcelona and trained as a medical oncologist at Hospital de Sant Pau de Barcelona in 2001.She has been working as a medical oncologist since 2001 at Institut Català d’ Oncologia (ICO) L’ Hospitalet in Barcelona, and she has more than 20 years of clinical experience in gynecological cancers. She is working in a multidisciplinary group along with specialized oncologists, surgeons, pathologists, and radiologists in this area, continuously improving her knowledge.Pardo has been the principal investigator of several multicenter clinical trials trying to improve standard treatment for patients suffering from this disease and participating in the development of remarkable drugs such as PARP inhibitors or immunotherapy in gyn cancers. In parallel, she is a tutor of medical oncology residents in our Institution, collaborating in their training.
Marta Gil-Martin, MD
Clinical Director of the Phase I Unit
ICO l’Hospitalet
Marta Gil-Martin graduated from the University of Barcelona and trained as a medical oncologist at Institut Català of Oncology (ICO) in L’Hospitalet, Barcelona, Spain. Since then, she has been working in two amazing areas: gynecologic tumors and early drug trials. She has participated as a principal investigator in several trials in ovarian, endometrial, and cervical cancer, participating in the development of drugs such as PARP inhibitors and immunotherapy in endometrial cancer. Since 2022, she is also in the steering board of GEICO, the Spanish Ovarian Cancer Research Group. In parallel, she is the clinical director of the Phase I Unit in ICO l’Hospitalet since 2017.
Sergio Villatoro, PhD
Biologist, Department of Pathological Anatomy
Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge – IDIBELL
Sergio Villatoro is a molecular biologist with experience in the field of human genetics. His activity as a scientist has been characterized by analyzing human genomic variants either polymorphic or pathological. He has been involved in different projects to uncover variants related to neurodevelopmental disorders and in the study of polymorphic structural variants in human populations and their functional and evolutionary consequences.
