Christoph Thomssen

Christoph Thomssen, MD, PhD is Director of the Department of Gynecology at the University Hospital Halle and Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, and a major contributor to adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatment research in early-stage breast cancer across HER2-positive and hormone receptor-positive subtypes. He served as a principal German investigator in the APHINITY trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2017, which demonstrated that adding pertuzumab to trastuzumab and chemotherapy in the adjuvant setting for HER2-positive early breast cancer significantly improved invasive disease-free survival compared with trastuzumab and chemotherapy alone, particularly in node-positive patients. APHINITY established dual HER2 blockade as a new adjuvant standard and created the most comprehensive HER2+ adjuvant regimen available. Professor Thomssen has also contributed significantly to the German Breast Group (GBG) and AGO (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Gynäkologische Onkologie) neoadjuvant platform trials evaluating pertuzumab, carboplatin, and olaparib combinations. He is an active contributor to the AGO treatment guidelines for early and advanced breast cancer, serves on multiple steering committees for early breast cancer adjuvant trials, and has published over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts addressing predictive biomarkers of response to pertuzumab, CDK4/6 inhibitors, and immune checkpoint combinations in the early breast cancer setting. His clinical and translational work bridges the neoadjuvant research setting and adjuvant outcome optimization in HER2+ and HR+ early breast cancer.