José “Pepe” Baselga, MD, PhD: In Memoriam (1959–2021)

Abstract

![][1] On March 21, 2021, a guiding light in cancer research and clinical oncology and valiant transformer of patient treatment and care was extinguished. José Baselga's untimely passing has sent shockwaves through the global cancer research community. We have lost a true giant—a visionary leader in translational science and precision oncology and one who also transformed institutions and professional societies every­where he went. As we reflect on some of José's many remarkable achievements as well as the many qualities that made him the unique individual he was, we hope to do him justice. This is the first obituary published in Cancer Discovery , a journal for which he served as a founding Editor-in-Chief along with Editor-in-Chief Lewis C. Cantley. The irony is bittersweet: José was an undisputed man of “firsts” whom we all followed, trying to keep up with his trailblazing pace, frightening brilliance, and steadfast determination to improve outcomes for patients with cancer everywhere. José Baselga was born on July 3, 1959, in Barcelona, Spain, with the pursuit of excellence in health care quite literally in his blood. His mother was a nurse, and both his father and grandfather were physicians. “Medicine runs in our family like an autosomal dominant trait,” said his youngest sister Eulalia, herself a pediatric dermatologist at the San Joan de Deu Hospital in Barcelona, during a recent tribute for her late brother. Like his younger sister, José was destined to be a devoted physician and healer who spent his life caring for patients with cancer. During his outstanding 27-year career, José produced a remarkable string of milestones in translational and clinical cancer research that have echoed internationally in the battle against cancer. Even during his early days as a resident in Internal Medicine at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, José displayed signs of the … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif