Training Experience Required

The fellow must be trained in surgical pathology with at least one year of experience in a Department of Pathology. As Institut Curie is the N°1 center in France for breast cancer care, particular interest in this field is an asset, but the Department of Pathology, Genetics and Immunology covers all oncology fields, with a particular expertise in breast cancer, gynecologic cancer, sarcoma, pediatric cancers, head and neck and ophthalmologic cancers. Interest (and/or experience) in one or more of these fields would be of added value.

Experience in translational research or knowledge in molecular biology, in digital pathology or in artificial intelligence applied to pathology are strong points.
French language speaking is an asset, but not a requirement. If not, the candidate must be proficient in English.

General Description

Institut Curie dates back to 1909, when Marie Curie implemented in the heart of Paris her bench-to-bedside vision of a research-care continuum. A leading player in the fight against cancer, the internationally renowned Institut Curie combines a Research Center and a Hospital Group that provides care for all types of cancers - including the rarest forms.

By embracing a crossdisciplinary approach, researchers and physicians develop together cancer-focused basic, translational and clinical research to discover more effective treatments and improve care for patients.

Expertise

The Department of Pathology has two Units (Paris and Saint Cloud within 30min of Paris site). The staff is composed by 12 pathologists in Paris and 7 in Saint Cloud. In both sites: breast pathology (reports delivered within 11 working days), gynecological pathology, head and neck pathology, dermatopathology, hematology, molecular pathology and immunohistochemistry for early phase trials, thoracic pathology, GI pathology; in Paris: soft tissue sarcomas, pediatrics, ophthalmology; in Saint Cloud: urology and bone tumors (external cases). The Department of Genetics is composed of 4 Units: Constitutional Genetics; Tumoral-Somatic Genomics (one Unit for common cancers and one for rare diseases: pediatric tumors; sarcomes; uveal melanoma) and a Clinical Genetic Unit highly specialized in the clinical management of all predisposition to cancer syndromes (BRCA1/2; ATM;RB; ...).

Facilities

The Department of Pathology-Genetics and Immunology at the Institut Curie offers the most comprehensive and up to date workflow for cancer diagnosis and definition of prognosis. The workflow has been organized to guarantee optimal pre-analytical management of the samples to secure all diagnostic procedures, an accurate definition of prognosis and identification of predictive markers. All cancer samples are received fresh at the Pathology Department directly from surgery within less than 30 minutes or in RPMI media for biopsies received from the Interventional Radiology Department. These procedures allow both the sampling for research, performed for any cancers larger than 10mm, frozen specimens collection for storage in our tumor bank and optimal fixation in formalin for diagnosis. Fresh samples are also provided for engraftments in mouse (PDX models). Predictive markers for breast cancers in particular (ER, PR, KI67, HER2) are assessed by immunohistochemistry on standardized and automatic devices (LEICA BOND), following ASCO CAP 2013 guidelines. FISH (HER2) are performed automatically in the LEICA BOND with the HER2 PathVysion ABBOTT - VYSIS detection kit and interpreted with EXCILONE scanner. In addition, in the Genetic Department CGH array analysis are available for HER2 equivoqual cases. Diagnostic FISH for special types are available (secretory carcinomas ETV6 probes and MYB probes for adenoid cystic carcinomas).

All probes needed for soft tissue sarcomas and pediatric tumors are available. One prognostic transcriptomic signature is available in the Genetic Department (Prosigna Nanostring). For metastatic breast cancer patients, a dedicated breast cancer gene panel for targeted sequencing is available to identify targets. In the Genetic Department all facilities for next generation sequencing are available (Targeted sequencing a 350 genes panel; RNA and Whole Exome sequencing). Moreover, the Institut Curie Genetic Department participates actively to the UNICANCER UCBG studies SAFIR (01, 02).
Our Pathology Laboratory is accredited for standard coloration H&E stains, HPV molecular testing according to the ISO 15 189, and is preparing the accreditation for HER2 status determination. Our laboratory is also following external quality control tests from the French AFAQAP for all markers. Equipment: Tissue arrayers are available to prepare tissue-micro-arrays. Multi-parametric immunohistochemistry analysis with Perkin-Elmer device is also available.

A Bioinformatics Unit has been created dedicated to diagnosis to help on a daily basis with the massive parallel sequencing at the clinic.

Last update: October 2019

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