Armando E. Giuliano

Armando Elario Giuliano is a breast surgical oncologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, California and pioneered the development of the sentinel node biopsy technique for breast cancer.
He was born in Long Island, New York and attended high school and college in New York. He graduated from Fordham University in 1969 and went on to graduate from the University of Chicago Medical School in 1973 followed by general surgery residency at the University of California, San Francisco.
It was during residency that he was selected to participate in surgical oncology research at the University of California, Los Angeles that turned his desire to become a vascular surgeon into surgical oncology. To this unexpected turn of events he attributes serendipity. During this time, he was mentored by surgical oncologist Dr. Don Morton. Following residency graduation in 1980, Dr. Giuliano joined the faculty at UCLA and continued research in oncology, specifically breast oncology. It was during this time that he and Dr. Morton developed the technique for sentinel node biopsy in breast cancer. The development of the sentinel node technique decreased the morbidity associated with breast cancer treatment for many women.
Dr. Giuliano and Dr. Morton left UCLA and founded the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, California. It was here that further research in breast cancer surgery was performed. Based on the results from NSABP-B04, Dr. Giuliano hypothesized that sentinel node biopsy alone would be safe for women with early stage breast cancer undergoing lumpectomy followed by adjuvant radiation even if they were found to have one or two positive sentinel lymph nodes.
In 1999, the ACOSOG Z0011 trial opened for accrual and was completed in 2004. Both short and long term results demonstrated non-inferior survival for patients with early stage breast cancer treated with lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy or lumpectomy and axillary dissection even in the setting of axillary metastases. The results of ACOSOG Z0011 were featured on the front page of the New York Times and were immediately considered practice changing. They provide the foundation for the current treatment of breast cancer.
Dr. Giuliano continues to be a prolific researcher and clinical scientist. He has over 400 publications, has served on a multitude of committees, and has received many accolades. In 2018, he was inducted into the Giants of Cancer Care. He is most proud of his tenure as President of Society of Surgical Oncology in 2019.
Dr. Giuliano moved to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, California in 2011 and currently serves as Co-Director of the Saul and Joyce Brandman Breast Center, Director of the Division of Surgical Oncology, Executive Vice Chair of Surgical Oncology in the Department of Surgery, Associate Director of Surgical Oncology in the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, and is Regional Medical Director of the Cedars-Sinai Cancer Breast Oncology Program. He is the Program Director for the Breast Surgical Oncology and Complex General Surgical Oncology fellowship programs as well.
He resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife and two children.
Category:Oncologists