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INFORMATION FOR

Lajos Pusztai, MD, DPhil

Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology)
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Additional Titles

Co-Leader, Genetics, Genomics and Epigenetics, Yale Cancer Center

About

Titles

Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology)

Co-Leader, Genetics, Genomics and Epigenetics, Yale Cancer Center

Biography

Dr. Pusztai is Professor of Medicine at Yale University and Scientific Co-Director of the Breast Center, and Co-Director of the Cancer Center Genomics, Genetics, and Epigenetics Program. Dr. Pusztai is also Chair of the Breast Cancer Research Committee of the South West Oncology Group (SWOG). He received his medical degree from the Semmelweis University of Medicine in Budapest, and his D.Phil. degree from the University of Oxford in England.

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His research group has made important contributions to establish that estrogen receptor-positive and-negative breast cancers have fundamentally different molecular, clinical and epidemiological characteristics. He has been a pioneer in evaluating gene expression profiling as a diagnostic technology to predict chemotherapy and endocrine therapy sensitivity and have shown that different biological processes are involved in determining the prognosis and treatment response in different breast cancer subtypes. His group has also developed new bioinformatics tools to integrate information from across different data platforms in order to define the molecular pathways that are disturbed in individual cancers and could provide the bases for individualized treatment strategies. He made important contributions to clarify the clinical value of preoperative (neoadjuvant) chemotherapy in different breast cancer subtypes. Dr Pusztai is also principal investigator of several clinical trials investigating new drugs, including immunotherapies for breast cancer. He has published over 250 scientific manuscripts in high impact medical journals including the NEJM, JAMA, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nature Biotechnology, PNAS, Lancet Oncology and JNCI. He is among the top 1% most highly cited clinical investigators in medicine over the past 10 years according to a 2015 Thomson Reuters report. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of National Cancer Institute (JNCI), member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, former member of the NCI North American Breast Cancer Steering Committee and Co-Chair of the Trans-ALTTO Committee and Chair of the Data Safety Monitoring Committee of the OPTIMA trial in the United Kingdom.

Appointments

Other Departments & Organizations

Education & Training

Fellow
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (1999)
Residency
University of Rochester St. Mary's Hospital (1996)
Intern
University of Rochester St. Mary's Hospital (1994)
DPhil
University of Oxford (1993)
MD
Semmelweis University School of Medicine (1987)

Research

Overview

  1. My research group has made important contributions to establish that estrogen receptor-positive and-negative breast cancers are fundamentally different molecular and clinical entities with distinct epidemiological risk factors. We have shown that different biological processes are involved in determining the prognosis and treatment response in different types of breast cancers. We were the first to show that basal-like breast cancers have significantly higher chemotherapy sensitivity than ER positive cancers. We demonstrated the statistical pitfalls of conducting clinical trials that include both ER-positive and ER-negative breast cancer that contributed to the numerous contradictory results generated by older randomized adjuvant chemotherapy trial.
  2. We also played a leading role in evaluating gene expression profiling as a diagnostic technology and particularly as a potential predictive test for chemotherapy and endocrine therapy sensitivity. During this process we developed new bioinformatics algorithms to identify informative genes and novel web tools to interpret the biological consequences of the multiple genomic abnormalities detected in cancer. We conducted the first clinical trial in cancer to test several gene signatures as patient selection tools for a biologically targeted drug, dasatinib.
  3. My group has also made important contributions to clarifying the clinical value of preoperative chemotherapy for breast cancer and we created and important decision making tools that clinicians can use in the clinic to decide who are the most appropriate patients for neoadjuvant chemotherapy. We created a free website for physicians to calculate the probability of achieving pathologic complete response based on routine pathologic variables of the cancer (www.mdanderson.org/pcr) and introduced a new method to quantify residual cancer burden after therapy which is more accurate and versatile than any previous pathological measurement methods and is now adopted by several large clinical studies as endpoint metric.


Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Breast; Breast Neoplasms; Genetics; Genomics; Medical Oncology; Translational Research, Biomedical

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Lajos Pusztai's published research.

Publications

2024

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Clinical Trials

Current Trials

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Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

  • honor

    Clinical Science Research Prize

    Yale School of Medicine AwardYale Cancer Center

Clinical Care

Overview

Lajos Pusztai, MD, DPhil, is a medical oncologist who specializes in breast cancer. He is the co-director of the Genomics, Genetics, and Epigenetics Program at the Yale Cancer Center.

He says he enjoys the delicate work of helping patients overcome the fear and shock of a breast cancer diagnosis. “I ensure that they maximize their chance of cure through the best available treatments,” he says. “I also love the research component of my job, to push the boundaries of existing knowledge and developing new therapies.”

Dr. Pusztai says he gravitated to medical oncology at the beginning of his career because of an inspiring mentor, and that the best part of his job is seeing patients remain disease-free for years and continuing with their life.

He is chair of the Breast Cancer Research Committee of the South West Oncology Group (SWOG), a global cancer research community that designs and conducts publicly funded clinical trials. His research group has made important contributions to establish that estrogen receptor-positive and-negative breast cancers have fundamentally different molecular, clinical, and epidemiological characteristics.

He has been a pioneer in evaluating gene expression profiling as a diagnostic technology to predict chemotherapy and endocrine therapy sensitivity and has shown that different biological processes are involved in determining the prognosis and treatment response in different breast cancer subtypes. Dr. Pusztai is also the principal investigator of several clinical trials investigating new drugs, including immunotherapies for breast cancer.

Clinical Specialties

Medical Oncology; Breast Oncology

Fact Sheets

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Board Certifications

  • Medical Oncology

    Certification Organization
    AB of Internal Medicine
    Latest Certification Date
    2023
    Original Certification Date
    1999

Yale Medicine News

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Contacts

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