In these very gray times, talking and discussing with Professor Anne Vincent-Salomon brings a little color back to the world of health and research. Here is a woman, with a broad smile, in her sixties, a doctor, a cancer specialist, appointed in June 2023 to head a hypothetical Women’s Cancer Institute. Last week, it formally opened its doors, not only with money, projects and teams, but above all, a strong desire to move forward and play as a team.
Anne Vincent-Salomon is therefore in good shape. “I am in good shape”, she tells us. And this is good news, because on the women’s cancer front, beyond the regular and often spectacular announcements about the arrival of new treatments, solid obstacles remain. But also questions and dead ends. “First, we have to fight; we cannot accept the disparities in access to care that remain or even grow. The same applies to innovations that are not accessible to all,” insists Professor Anne Vincent-Salomon. “In terms of female cancers, there is excess mortality in the north-east of the Ile-de-France region, but also in Hauts-de-France. We want to understand why? However, there is a lack of data, and participation in breast cancer screening remains insufficient. Do the disparities come from a delay in treatment? Or are there discontinuities afterwards? But there are also genetic differences that we do not understand. In breast cancer, in very young women, barely 20% have a genetic component. How can we explain the others?” Every year in France, nearly 78,000 women are affected by female cancers. 20,000 of them die from it. “This is far too many. Reducing the number of deaths linked to breast cancer and gynecological cancers is a major challenge,” comments Anne Vincent-Salomon.
In this context, it is certainly a very good idea for the authorities to create a university hospital institute, thus bringing together forces that were previously scattered. Here, it is a cocktail between the Curie Institute, the Paris Sciences & Lettres University (PLS), but also Inserm. In short, top of the range.
Good news: there is money
Anne Vincent-Salomon was initially an anatomopathologist, a medical specialty that consists of examining organs, tissues or cells, to identify and analyze anomalies linked to a disease. She then worked on the genomics of breast cancers, and is now at the head of this Institute of Women’s Cancers. “Our ambition is to be the national reference center dedicated to women’s cancers and to initiate a real dynamic beyond our IHU.”
Good news again, there is money. An initial budget of 20 million euros, financed under the France 2030 plan. Curie adds 10 million euros.Our goal? Discoveries in basic and clinical research that will bring about innovation and revolutionize prevention and care.” Not less… “We must dream, insists our researcher. And it is a necessity. We cannot continue, for example, in ovarian cancer, with more than one in two women dying from it within five years.”
“Database” and “listening space”
There is work to be done. First, to better collect solid and usable data. The cornerstone of this new institute, the Women’s Cancer Atlas, will be the basis for most activities, from research to care and training.This Atlas aims to be a database, multi-scale (cell, tissue, individual), multimodal (taking into account multiple molecular and clinical parameters) and longitudinal (at each stage of diagnosis, during or after treatment, during relapses). In the next ten years, this database should include samples from more than 35,000 patients with breast or gynecological cancers followed at the Institut Curie (including minimal data) and nearly 1,000 patients with very in-depth and complete analyses.
Alongside this, an original structure has been created, the Women’s Living Lab, where the aim is to bring together patients’ experiences. “This lab will be a space for listening, exchange and incubator of ideas.” Her goals ? “Providing personal answers. This place will allow the meeting of diverse audiences: patients, relatives and caregivers, but also artists, public authorities and entrepreneurs. The lab aims to catalyze all ideas and in addition, it will benefit from the support of PSL University and the incredible diversity of the subjects of expertise of its members.
Nice program. “Here we go. Such an opportunity focused on women’s health is not to be missed,” insists Anne Vincent-Salomon. “I like to work and unite, she tells us. The greatest successes are collective successes.” And to cite an example: “Look Coralie Chevallier, At Inserm, she did fantastic work on the reluctance of vaccinations against the papillomavirus among adolescent girls. With this research, we will be able to develop much more relevant vaccination strategies.” And build a future that is a little more… rosy.
