Dr. Cristina Suárez received her M.D in Medicine and Surgery at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She gets a Specialist Training, Medical Oncology at the Faculty of Medicine, Autonomous University of Barcelona. “Hospital del Mar – Parc de la Salut” of Barcelona. In 2008, she joined the Oncology Department of Vall d’Hebron University Hospital as Physician (attending staff), of the Genitourinary, Central Nervous System, Sarcoma and Tumors of Unknown Origin Program. In 2018 obtained “Cum Laude” qualification when she completes her studies of doctorate with the doctoral thesis: “Prognostic value of genetic alterations in the mTOR pathway of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with mTOR inhibitors”.

Dr Suarez is a medical oncologist and clinical investigator at the Genitourinary, Central Nervous System (CNS) tumors, Sarcoma and Cancer of Unknown Primary Site Group, with special focus on kidney and bladder cancer. The group is focused on the design and development of clinical trials and translational studies that allow treatment optimization and the development of new and disruptive treatment options for those patients. Dr Suarez has been principal investigator and co-investigator in more than 100 clinical trials throughout her career, mainly in the genitourinary, brain and sarcoma tumor area, as well as phase I clinical trials.
Research highlights include clinical development of immunotherapy in her area of knowledge. Some relevant studies in which Dr. Suarez has had a relevant role include CHECKMATE-9ER, which demonstrated first line efficacy of Nivolumab-Cabozantinib in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC), KEYNOTE-427, which showed the efficacy of pembrolizumab in non-clear cell RCC. Dr. Suarez has had a critical role in all the mentioned studies.
One of her main areas of interest is biomarkers, she is involved in several biomarker studies and has been a co-author of some of them such as the IMMOTION 151.
Another relevant highlight includes the CALYPSO trial, which focuses on molecular alteration selection in patients leads to a better outcome in renal papillary tumors. She has also participated in several investigator-initiated trials and is involved in several steering committees of relevant trials.

In fact, the result of this research, have been highly productive, leading to a number of publications in high-impact journals, among which stands out publications in The New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Nature Medicine or J Clin Oncol.
She has authored and co-authored more than 80 articles, communications and book chapters at a national and international level, has more than 2500 citations and an H-index of 20.

Reflective of her expertise within the genitourinary cancer field, Cristina Suárez has served as a Member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) Scientific Program Committee Genitourinary Cancer – Kidney and Bladder over the in 2020, 2021 and 2022. During 2022 she was appointed as Track leader of this same Committee and a Member of ASCO’s Education Committee: Genitourinary Cancer – Kidney & Bladder.
She has also participated as a Member of Scientific Committee ESMO in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and is currently an ESMO faculty member for the Genitourinary Tumours, non-Prostate for the period 2021-2025.
In addition, she is currently a member of the Europe Planning Committee International Kidney Cancer Symposium (IKCS).
She is also the vice-president of SOGUG (Spanish Oncology Genitourinary Group) and she is very involved in all the activities of the group.