Dr. Eduardo Bruera

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas, USA

Dr. Eduardo Bruera was born in Argentina. He received his medical degree in 1979 and trained in medical oncology in Argentina. In 1984 he joined the Cross Cancer Institute and the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He worked in Edmonton until 1999 helping to develop the Division of Palliative Care Medicine and the Edmonton Regional Palliative Care Program. In 1999 he relocated to The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas where he currently holds the F.T. McGraw Chair in the Treatment of Cancer and Chair of the Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Medicine.

Dr. Bruera’s main clinical interest is the care of the physical and psychosocial distress (including assessment & management) of physical & psychosocial symptoms) of patients with advanced cancer and the support of their families. He developed and led, for the first five years of operations, the Edmonton Regional and Palliative Care program in Alberta, Canada. This unique program provides access to palliative care to more than 85% of patients who die of cancer in the Edmonton Region.

Dr. Bruera has been interested in the development of palliative care programs internationally, particularly in the developing world where he helped in the establishment of numerous palliative care programs in the Latin American region, India, and different areas of Europe. He has a strong interest in the global development of palliative care and has collaborated for many years with the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization and served as Chair of the International Association of Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) from 2000 and 2004.

In addition to having published more than 800 papers, abstracts, and book chapters, and edited 15 books, he has given more than 600 major invited lectures. Dr. Bruera has trained hundreds of physicians who are currently practicing palliative care around the world.

Dr. Bruera has received a number of national and international awards including the Lane Adams Quality of Life Award in 2006 and the American Association of Hospice and Palliative Medicine’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. He was honoured by The Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians with the establishment of the “Eduardo Bruera Award” as a career award for palliative care specialists.