- William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award
- AACR Distinguished Lectureship in Breast Cancer Research
- AACR Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research
William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award
The William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award is given annually at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium® in recognition of an investigator whose extraordinary and sustained achievements in translational and/or clinical research have made an impact on our understanding of the pathogenesis and/or outcome of breast cancer patients.
The lectureship was established in 1992 in honor of Dr. William L. McGuire, who founded the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium with Dr. Charles A. Coltman in 1977. The lectureship commemorates Dr. McGuire’s significant contributions to oncology medicine. His research played a major role in introducing estrogen receptor assays on breast tumor tissue as a guide to treatment decisions for women with breast cancer. Breast cancer patients everywhere now receive these tests.
The lecturer is selected by the SABCS McGuire Award Committee through a nomination process. The selection is based on the following criteria:
- Lecturers are respected figures with an international reputation.
- They have made significant contributions to the field of breast cancer research.
- They are known as skilled presenters.
- They present a topic of high current interest related to the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer or to the study of its underlying mechanisms.

2025 McGuire Lecture
The 2025 recipient of the William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award is Armando E. Giuliano, MD. Dr. Giuliano is a professor of surgery and the Linda and Jim Lippman Chair in Surgical Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he also serves as chief of breast surgical oncology; regional medical director for Cedars-Sinai Cancer, Breast Oncology; associate director of the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute; and co-director of the Saul and Joyce Brandman Breast Center – A Project of Women’s Guild.
Dr. Giuliano is being recognized for his pioneering work on sentinel lymph node biopsy for patients with breast cancer, which has transformed the surgical management of this disease.
2024 McGuire Lecture
The 2024 recipient of the William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award was Laura J. van ‘t Veer, PhD, professor and Angela and Shu Kai Chan endowed chair in cancer research in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She is also the director of applied genomics and leader of the Breast Oncology Program for the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
AACR Distinguished Lectureship in Breast Cancer Research
Supported by Aflac, Inc.
The AACR Distinguished Lectureship in Breast Cancer Research was established to recognize outstanding science that has inspired, or has the potential to inspire, new perspectives on the etiology, diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of breast cancer.
2024 AACR Distinguished Lecturer
The 2024 recipient of the AACR Distinguished Lectureship in Breast Cancer Research was Steffi Oesterreich, PhD, the Shear Family Foundation Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at the University of Pittsburgh and coleader of the Cancer Biology Program at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. She also serves as the codirector and director of education at the Women’s Cancer Research Center, a collaboration between UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and the Magee-Womens Research Institute.
AACR Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research
Supported by The Breast Cancer Research Foundation
The AACR Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research is presented to an investigator no more than 50 years of age whose novel and significant work has had or may have a far-reaching impact on the etiology, detection, diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of breast cancer.
2024 AACR Outstanding Investigator Award
The 2024 recipient of the AACR Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research was Christina Curtis, PhD, MSc, the RZ Cao Professor of Medicine, Genetics, and Biomedical Data Science and director of artificial intelligence and cancer genomics at Stanford University School of Medicine. She also serves as the director of breast cancer translational research and codirector of the Molecular Tumor Board at Stanford Cancer Institute.