Speakers - Summit on Cardio-Oncology Excellence 2026

speakers 2026

Sebastian Szmit

Chair of the Summit on Cardio-Oncology Excellence 2025

Sebastian Szmit is a cardiologist & medical oncologist. He graduated from the Military Medical Academy in Poland (2002). From 2002 to 2012 he worked at the Military Institute of Medicine in the (1) Emergency Department, (2) Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiology, (3) Department of Oncology. Since 2012 he has been working at the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education as: (1) a cardio-oncology consultant at the Department of Pulmonary Circulation, Thromboembolic Diseases and Cardiology (until 2022), (2) Head of the Department of Cardio-Oncology at the Institute of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine. He is a consultant of the Cardio-Oncology Subunit at the Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology in Warsaw. He is responsible for leading the Education & Training Advisory Committee, International Cardio-Oncology Society (IC-OS). He chairs the Thrombosis Study Group of the ESC Council of Cardio-Oncology.

Beata Jagielska

Director of the Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute  of Oncology in Poland

Teresa López-Fernández

Chair, ESC Council of Cardio-Oncology

Dr López-Fernández is a senior consultant cardiologist at La Paz University Hospital and the IdiPAZ Research Institute in Madrid, Spain, where she leads the Cardio-Oncology programme. She also holds this role at Quirónsalud University Hospital. Her main focus is the clinical coordination of multidisciplinary teams, cardiovascular care in patients with cancer, and advanced cardiac imaging.

She is Chair of the ESC Council of Cardio-Oncology and Co-Chair of the first ESC Guidelines on Cardio-Oncology. Previously, she founded and led the Cardio-Oncology Working Group of the Spanish Society of Cardiology (2015–2023). She also serves as Associate Editor for the European Heart Journal and European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, and sits on the editorial board of JACC: Cardio-Oncology.

Agnieszka Tycińska

Professor Agnieszka Tycińska is a specialist in cardiology, internal medicine and intensive care. She heads the Department of Intensive Cardiac Care at the Medical University of Bialystok and serves as Deputy Head of the Department of Cardiology at the University Clinical Hospital in Bialystok. Her clinical and research interests focus on acute cardiovascular care, cardiogenic shock, heart failure and intensive cardiac care. She is President-Elect of the Polish Cardiac Society for the 2025–2027 mandate and the second woman elected to lead the Society in its more than 70-year history. She is also President-Elect of the Association for Acute CardioVascular Care of the European Society of Cardiology (ACVC ESC) for the 2026–2028 mandate. She has served on the ACVC Board since 2020 and has held several leadership roles in education, certification and accreditation. She is a member of the National Council for Cardiology at the Ministry of Health and chairs its Working Group for the Standardisation of Intensive Cardiac Care. She also serves as an expert to the Parliamentary Group on Adherence.

Annamaria Brioli

Peter van der Meer

Professor Peter van der Meer, MD, PhD

Chairperson-Elect, ESC Council of Cardio-Oncology

University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands

Peter van der Meer is a clinical cardiologist and chair of the Department of Experimental Cardiology at University Medical Center Groningen. He is also a Professor of Heart Failure and Translational Cardiology at the University of Groningen. Peter received both his MD and PhD cum laude from the University of Groningen, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School to train his skills in stem cell biology. His research group consists of PhD students and post-docs with various backgrounds (biologists, medical doctors and biomedical-engineers) working on translational research topics to bridge the gap between the bench and bedside. Professor van der Meer’s research focusses on understanding the susceptibility to develop heart failure and on exploring novel treatment targets and therapies. In 2024 he was voted by his peers as chair-elect of the Council of CardioOncology of the ESC and member of the taskforce of the ESC who wrote the first Guidelines on Cardio-Oncology. He has received funding from several agencies including the Dutch Heart Foundation, NWO, European Union H2020 program, the HFSP and has been awarded an ERC starting and ERC consolidator grant.

Piotr Rutkowski

President of the Polish Oncological Society

Professor Piotr Rutkowski is a renowned oncologist and surgical oncologist. He works at the Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology in Warsaw, where he leads the Department of Soft Tissue, Bone Sarcoma, and Melanoma. His primary scientific interests include the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma and soft tissue sarcomas.

Ewa Lech-Marańda

Director of the Institute of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine

Maciej Banach

President, International Lipid Expert Panel

Michael Fradley

President of the International Cardio-Oncology Society

Janina Stępińska

Director of the National Institute of Cardiology

Krzysztof Filipiak

Prof. Dr hon. c. Krzysztof J. Filipiak, MD, PhD, FESC

Cardiologist & Director of the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education

Specialist in: cardiology, internal medicine, arterial hypertension, clinical pharmacology.
Graduated at Medical University of Warsaw (MUW). Scientific and clinical internships: Utrecht, Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Milano, Catania (Italy), Rio de Janeiro (Brasil), Geneve (Switzerland); visiting professor at University of Nis (Serbia). Visiting professor: DWU University of Madang (Papua-New Guinea) and St.George’s University, Grenada. Actual affiliations: Centre of Medical Postgraduate Education (CMKP), Head; former: MUW Vice Dean for Science, Medical Faculty, MUW Deputy Rector Magnificus; MUW Medical Sciences Council Chairman Medical association memberships: Polish Cardiac Society (PCS): Chairman of Polish Top Junior Cardiologists ,,Club 30”; Co-founder and first Chairman of PCS Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy Working Group; Polish Society of Hypertension: Past-President; International Society of Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy (ISCP) – Governor for Poland, Directors Board Member; the Polish Academy of Science (PAS): member of PAS Clinical Sciences Committee and PAS Physiology and Pharmacology Committee; Former Editor-in-chief Kardiologia Polska [Polish Heart Journal] – the official journal of Polish Cardiac Society, Executive Editor Cardiology Journal.

Aleksandra Konieczna

Ewa Lewicka

Alexander Lyon

Past Chairperson, ESC Council of Cardio-Oncology

Diego Sadler

Dr. Sadler is the Section Head, Cardio Oncology at the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute, Cleveland Clinic Florida (2015-2020)
-Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University.
-Principal Investigator of the Global Cardio-Oncology Registry, G-COR an international collaboration involving 35 countries.
-Chair of the Cardio-Oncology Council of the American College of Cardiology for the period 2025-2028.
-Board of Directors of Florida Chapter of American College of Cardiology 2018-2026
-Active clinical practice in Cardio-Oncology, echocardiography and Nuclear cardiology.

Michał Farkowski

Mateusz Tajstra

Paola Zagami

Paola Zagami, MD PhD

Medical Oncology Department, European Institute of Oncology; Quality manager for New Drugs and Early Drug Development for Innovative Therapies Division research fellow, University of Milan

Anna Borowiec

Anna Borowiec, PhD, MD, is a cardiologist at the Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology in Warsaw, Poland. She is the Principal Investigator of the EMPACT study (EMPAgliflozin in Prevention of Chemotherapy-Related CardioToxicity), which investigates the potential of SGLT2 inhibition to prevent cardiotoxicity in patients undergoing cancer therapy. Her clinical and research work focuses on the prevention and treatment of cancer therapy–related cardiac dysfunction (CTRCD) in oncology patients, with particular expertise in advanced cardiac imaging techniques.

Marek Gierlotka

President of the Polish Cardiac Society
Director of the Institute of Medical Sciences at University of Opole
Head of the Department of Cardiology at University Hospital in Opole

A specialist in cardiology, internal medicine, and intensive care, as well as an experienced interventional cardiologist. Since 2018 the Head of Department of Cardiology at University Hospital in Opole, and since 2020 the Director of the Institute of Medical Sciences at University of Opole. Co-creator and coordinator of the Polish Registry of Acute Coronary Syndromes PL-ACS and the National Database of Myocardial
Infarctions AMI-PL.
In Polish Cardiac Society currently at position of President-Elect of the Society.
As part of his activities in the European Society of Cardiology, he was a member of the Management Board of Acute Cardiovascular Care Association ACVC ESC and co-chair of the Research and Science Section (2018-2022) as well as the member of the EORP Executive Committee (2020-2022).
He received the academic title of professor of medical and health sciences in 2021. His scientific achievements include near 300 publications with a total impact factor above 700 and the Hirsh index of 31. His scientific work focuses on prevention of cardiovascular diseases as well as on epidemiology, long-term prognosis of acute cardiovascular diseases along with the analysis of the impact of the diagnostic and therapeutic process on epidemiological indicators. He serves as an expert in the field of design, implementation and analysis of clinical registries and large databases (PL-ACS, AMI-PL, SILSTROKE) as well as clinical studies.
He was awarded multiple times by the Rector of SUM and UO as well as the Polish Society of Cardiology. In 2017, he received a distinction for the project "Coordinated care after myocardial infarction" in the
"Golden Scalpel 2017" competition of Medicine Puls and was honored with the Golden Laurel of Skills and
Competences in the Medicine and Biomedical Engineering category by Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Katowice. In 2022, he was awarded by the President of the Council of Ministers for achievements in the field of scientific activity – participation in the project of creating and implementing medical registers, the analysis of which serves to optimize clinical procedures in cardiology.

Krzysztof Giannopoulos

President of the Polish Society of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine

Prof. dr hab. Krzysztof Giannopoulos, lekarz kierujący Oddziałem Wieloprofilowym Zachowawczym Uniwersyteckiego Szpitala Klinicznego nr 4 w Lublinie, kierownik Zakładu Hematoonkologii Doświadczalnej Uniwersytetu Medycznego w Lublinie i dyrektor Centrum Wsparcia Badań Klinicznych Uniwersytetu Medycznego w Lublinie jest ekspertem z dziedziny hematologii klinicznej i doświadczalnej.

Prof. Krzysztof Giannopoulos jest prezesem Polskiego Towarzystwa Hematologów i Transfuzjologów, współzałożycielem oraz pierwszym prezesem stowarzyszenia Hematologia Nowej Generacji, współzałożycielem oraz pierwszym przewodniczącym sekcji młodych Polskiego Towarzystwa Hematologów i Transfuzjologów, współzałożycielem i członkiem zarządu Polskiego Konsorcjum Szpiczakowego, członkiem zarządu Polskiej Grupy Szpiczakowej, członkiem komitetu naukowego Europejskiego Towarzystwa Hematologicznego oraz wiceprzewodniczącym Rady Naukowej Instytutu Hematologii i Transfuzjologii w Warszawie oraz członkiem Rady Społecznej ds. Ochrony Zdrowia województwa lubelskiego. W latach 2012-2020 był Redaktorem Naczelnym Acta Haematologica Polonica.

Giuseppe Curigliano

The President-Elect of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)

Giuseppe Curigliano, MD, PhD, is the director of the Early Drug Development Division at the European Institute of Oncology, a comprehensive cancer center in Milano, Italy. He is professor of Medical Oncology in the Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology at the University of Milano.

In ESMO he served as Chair the ESMO Nomination Committee (2017-2019) and as Chair of the ESMO Clinical Practice Guideline Committee (2019-2023). He was one of the founding member and served as scientific Co-Chair of the “ESMO Breast Cancer Congress”. He also served several years as scientific co-chair of St Gallen Early Breast Consensus Conference. He contributed to launch the ESMO Living Guidelines and to the recognition of the Fellow of ESMO (FESMO). He organized and participated to many professional and educational congresses for oncologists all over the world. Professor Curigliano’s research focuses on biomarkers and personalized therapies, with an emphasis on biomarker discovery, targeted agent development, and the integration of personalized medicine. He leads Phase I-III clinical trials on targeted therapies for breast cancer and oversees large-scale national studies on the implementation of high-throughput technologies in healthcare systems

Professor Curigliano was identified as Clarivate™ world’s most influential researchers (the highly cited researchers) in 2022, 2023 and 2024. He has authored more than 900 papers in peer-reviewed journals (h-index 106) and many book chapters. He served as editorial board member for international journals in oncology (European Journal of Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology). He served as Editor in Chief of ESMO Open from 2022 to 2025. He trained, mentored and sponsored dozens of medical oncologists from Latin America, Africa, Asia and Italy.

Professor Curigliano was awarded with the first ESO Umberto Veronesi Award (2017) and with the Fellowship of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences in Paris (2017). He is ESMO President elect.

Prof. Dr hon. c. Krzysztof J. Filipiak, MD, PhD, FESC

Cardiologist & Director of the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education