Francesc Xavier Bosch Jose MD, PhD

Dr. Xavier Bosch holds a Medical Degree (University of Barcelona, 1972), a Master of Public Health (University of California-Los Angeles, 1978), a Medical Specialty in Internal Medicine and Clinical Oncology (Autonomous University of Barcelona, 1982), and a PhD (Autonomous University of Barcelona, 1991). In 2016, he was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Barcelona.

He worked as epidemiologist in the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, 1982-1993) and as Visiting Scientist in the National Cancer Institute (NCI, 2002). He served as Director of the Cancer Epidemiology Research Program on the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO, 1994-2015), and has collaborated with several public health agencies and scientific organizations such as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), or the European Research Organization on Genital Infection and Neoplasia (EUROGIN) among others.

His scientific career has focused on cancers associated to infectious agents, notably on cancer of the liver, the cervix, the genital tract and of the oral cavity and oropharynx. His research in the IARC was instrumental in demonstrating the causal role of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) in cervical cancer, establishing the role of the environmental co-factors for carcinogenesis among HPV-positive women, and describing the international variation of HPV types in cervical cancer and some of its major variants. His studies have triggered both the first HPV vaccine clinical trials and the evaluation of HPV tests as screening tools.

He has also made relevant contributions to the field of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and liver cancer, such as the assessment of the impact of childhood HBV vaccination in liver cancer prevention in the Gambia Hepatitis Intervention Study (GHIS), the quantification of HBV and HCV action in liver cirrhosis and liver cancer by PCR, or the study of the role of dietary exposition to aflatoxin in liver cancer.