Vladimir F. Semiglazov is Soviet and Russian oncologist, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, PhD, MD, DSc, Professor in the Department of Oncology, I.I. Mechnikov North-Western State Medical University, head of the Research Department of Tumors of the Reproductive System, head of the Research Department and principal research fellow in the Research Department of Breast Tumors, N.N. Petrov National Medical Research Oncology Center, Ministry of Health of Russia, actual member of the New York Academy of Sciences (1994). Since 1965, he has been working at N.N. Petrov Research Institute of Oncology, Ministry of Health of Russia as a head of the Surgical Department of the Research Institute; he is also a chairman of the Scientific Society of Oncologists of Saint Petersburg and Leningrad region; board member of the European Society of Mammalogists and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, European Society for Medical Oncology, European Society of Surgical Oncology, California Society of Surgeons (USA). Dr. Semiglazov initiated and participated in the creation of breast cancer centers in Russia and CIS countries (St. Petersburg, Orenburg, Kishinev, Alma-Ata, and others); he is the author of a discovery; he was awarded the silver medal of P.L. Kapitsa, won of N.N. Petrov Oncology Award (1994), received a special grant of the Russian Academy of Sciences for outstanding research (1994). Dr. Semiglazov has coauthored more than 400 publications, including 4 monographs and books, 14 methodical guidelines, and 30 foreign publications.

He was born on September 16, 1941 in Urzhum, Kirov region, in a working-class family.

1959: graduated from high school in Urzhum.

1965: graduated from I.P. Pavlov First Leningrad Medical Institute. One of his teachers was Semyon Abramovich Kholdin, an oncologist, surgeon, and the assistant of Nikolay Nikolaevich Petrov, the founder of Russian oncology.

1965–1967: clinical residence in N.N. Petrov Research Institute of Oncology.

1967–1970: postgraduate education (PhD student) in Research Institute of Oncology.

1970: defended his thesis (candidate of medical sciences) entitled “Association between clinical manifestations of breast cancer and its morphological structure”.

1980: defended his thesis (doctor of medical sciences) entitled “Role of clinical and pathogenetic characteristics of breast cancer in the treatment and prognosis”.

1980 – present: head and then scientific director of the Department of Breast Tumors in N.N. Petrov Research Institute of Oncology.

1984–1990: deputy director for research in N.N. Petrov Research Institute of Oncology.

1985–2005: coordinated research activity of the World Health Organization (Geneva) Center for

1987: became a Professor.

2000: became a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.

2005–2009: director of N.N. Petrov Research Institute of Oncology.

2005–present: member of the Saint Gallen expert group for the development of world standards for the treatment of breast tumors (Switzerland), the only representative of Russia, CIS countries and Eastern Europe.

2011 – present: head of the Research Department of Tumors of the Reproductive System.

2014: became a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (due to merging of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and Russian Academy of Sciences).

Dr. Semiglazov is a practicing surgeon who performed approximately 6,000 breast surgeries (as of 2016), including extensive, organ-sparing, and reconstructive operations. He is still actively operating. He is the author of two discoveries: “Mechanisms of formation of pathogenetic forms of breast cancer depending on pathological changes in the human body” and “Mechanisms of reduction of 5A-dihydrotestosterone and 17P-etradiol levels in men with partial age-related androgen deficiency, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and altered plasma levels of testosterone”.

On the instructions of the WHO Cancer Center, the team headed by V.F. Semiglazov performed a long-term (1985–2005) study that included 120,000 women. This study identified the most effective screening methods that reduce breast cancer mortality and proved the inefficiency of self-

 His main areas of research interest are as follows:

• pathogenetic subtypes of breast cancer in the planning of systemic treatment (chemo-
• development and improvement of techniques of organ-sparing surgeries for patients with breast cancer.

Dr. Semiglazov has proved feasibility of neoadjuvant therapy as a part of preoperative systemic chemo- and/or hormone- and/or targeted therapy that reduces the size of the tumor and eliminates metastases, thereby allowing surgery in patients considered inoperable.

Research team of N.N. Petrov National Medical Research Oncology Center, under the supervision of V.F. Semiglazov, has developed a method of neoadjuvant hormone therapy for breast cancer – an effective and non-toxic treatment for postmenopausal patients. He has also developed a model for performing clinical trials of any drugs for neoadjuvant treatment of breast tumors with small samples (up to 300 people), which significantly reduces the duration of the study (to 4 months). Therefore, it reduces the time required for drug development.

Dr. Semiglazov has created a school of oncologists. Fifty-six PhD/MD theses and 25 DMSc theses were successfully defended under his supervision in the Russian Federation and abroad.