Paul E. Goss

Paul E. Goss, MB BCh, PhD, FRCPI is Director of the Breast Cancer Prevention Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and one of the most important figures in the global breast cancer chemoprevention field. Born in Ireland and having built his academic career in Canada and the USA, Professor Goss led two landmark prevention trials that fundamentally changed the standard of care for both prevention and adjuvant endocrine therapy. He was principal investigator of the MAP.3 trial (NCIC CTG MAP.3), published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2011, which demonstrated that five years of exemestane reduced the annual incidence of invasive breast cancer by 65% compared with placebo in postmenopausal women at elevated risk, with favorable tolerability, establishing exemestane as an effective and well-tolerated preventive option—the first steroidal aromatase inactivator to demonstrate breast cancer prevention efficacy. Earlier, Professor Goss led the MA.17 trial showing that letrozole extended for five years beyond five years of tamoxifen significantly improved disease-free survival in postmenopausal women with HR+ early breast cancer, establishing the paradigm of extended aromatase inhibitor adjuvant therapy. He has also led NCIC trials exploring letrozole in premenopausal women and global prevention programs in low- and middle-income countries. With over 300 publications, Professor Goss has expanded the breast cancer chemoprevention toolkit to include all three major aromatase inhibitors and defined the populations most likely to benefit.