Vera Hirsh

2021 Emeritus Professor

Dr. Hirsh studied medicine at the Universitas Carolina Pragensis, Charles University, Prague, from 1965-71 and went to University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, for her postgraduate training. She joined McGill in 1979 and ascended through the academic ranks as assistant professor, associate professor, and then full professor. In addition to her clinical and teaching role at the MUHC, Dr Hirsh was the Chief of the Hematology-Oncology Clinical Service, at Santa Cabrini Hospital, in Montreal. Dr. Hirsh is an international leader on the treatment of lung cancer, with over 120 scientific papers. For the past 10 years, her papers have been cited more than 1,700 times annually and her leading 5 papers on chemotherapy of lung cancer have been cited more than 12,000 times. Dr. Hirsh brought to McGill many of the cutting-edge modalities for treating lung cancer, allowing McGill’s teaching hospitals to be regular partners in prestigious lung cancer cooperative groups. When last counted 5 years ago she had participated in nearly 400 clinical trials, of which 80 were mainly for lung cancer therapy. A chemotherapy regimen for advanced lung cancer that became mainstream a few years ago in North America was called the “Hirsh” regimen. She is an international authority on management of adverse events from targeted therapies, quality of life in clinical trials, and patient-reported outcomes. Dr. Hirsh has lectured nationally and internationally and has been a regular keynote speaker at prestigious conferences, such as the European Society of Medical Oncology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the World Lung Cancer Conference. She was a prominent guideline development contributor for the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. Dr. Hirsh has been a most effective teacher and mentor to countless physicians, many of whom became oncology or respiratory medicine leaders in their own merit.