Esteban “Steve” Cvitkovic, MD, an emeritus member of the AACR and a medical oncologist who focused on early-stage development of cancer therapies, died June 20, 2025, at the age of 75.
Born in Argentina in 1950, Cvitkovic obtained a medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires at age of only 19. He performed postdoctoral work at the National Cancer Institute in Milan and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and received training in pharmacology at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan.
After 25 years as an academic investigator, in 2005 he formed a contract research organization called Oncology Therapeutic Development in Paris, focusing on early-phase clinical trials to develop oncology drugs. He helped develop cisplatin as a cancer therapy by finding ways to limit its toxicity. Cvitkovic joined Access Pharmaceuticals in 2007 as a member of the board of directors and vice chairman (Europe).
Later he launched OncoEthix, a biotech company, and presented results of an OncoEthix clinical trial at the AACR Annual Meeting 2014 in San Diego, reporting clinical responses among patients with leukemia and other hematological disorders to an epigenetic therapy.
Cvitkovic was also scientific president of Foundation Nelia et Amadeo Barletta, a nonprofit that works to improve personalized cancer therapeutics.
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Esteban Cvitkovic (“Steve”, “El Gordo”) died on June 20, 2025. Inventor of hyperhydrated cisplatin, developer of oxaliplatin, pioneer in head and neck cancers.He had the rare gift of seeing the truth behind appearances and asking:
“Is this practice truly useful to the patient?”