Date of birth: 25/04/1946

Date of death: 26/02/2020

BIOGRAPHY

Son of survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Goldhirsch was born on 25 April 1946 in a refugee camp in Landsberg Am Lech, Germany. After growing up in Israel, he moves to Milan, Italy, to study internal medicine.

In 1973 he starts his activity as clinical assistant in Switzerland. Together with the launch of IBCSG in 1977, in those years Goldhirsch establishes the Ticino Medical Oncology network with Dr. Franco Cavalli.

In 1978, once received a call from Dr. Kurt Brunner, he starts his clinical activity at the Medical Oncology department of Bern University, while in 1979 he becomes Head of clinical research at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

Among his many assignments, from 1985 he is Professor of Medical Oncology at Bern University, as well as visiting professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI, Harvard Medical School) from 1986 to 2006.

While being chief physician at IOSI from 1994 to 2011, Goldhirsch is also in charge as Director of the Medicine department at IEO in Milan, from 1997 to 2013. Since 2014, he is Director of the Multidisciplinary Senology Programme at IEO.

He dies on February 26, 2020, of complications from heart disease.