Hope S. Rugo

Hope S. Rugo, MD is Professor of Medicine and Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is one of the most prolific clinical trialists in breast oncology worldwide, with a career spanning more than three decades and encompassing more than 300 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Rugo is best known for her leadership roles in landmark trials evaluating antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) in metastatic breast cancer, most notably as a senior investigator in the ASCENT trial, which established sacituzumab govitecan—a Trop-2-directed ADC—as a new standard of care for pretreated metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), demonstrating a more than doubling of progression-free survival compared to chemotherapy. She has also contributed extensively to the clinical development of CDK4/6 inhibitors in hormone receptor-positive (HR+) metastatic breast cancer, including involvement in the MONARCARCH program evaluating abemaciclib combinations. Dr. Rugo has been a leading voice in assessing the management of adverse effects associated with CDK4/6 inhibitors and ADCs, and has served on ASCO, NCCN, and international guideline panels for breast cancer. She is a past president of the Oncology Nursing Society Foundation board and a frequent invited lecturer at ASCO, ESMO, and San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).